I can understand the motive, however flawed it may seem in hindsight. They were seeing dollar signs, happy shareholders, job security - so they took a chance that massively backfired.

Am I the only one who thinks they deserve a little credit for getting their CTO to publicly deal with the issue on the same day all this came to a head, including saying that a guy was literally sat coding out a removal tool right now and due for release tonight? That's a damn respectable feedback loop for a megacorp if you ask me, and we'd have a lot less to whine about here on HN if all mistakes were rectified so expeditiously.