it’s notable that ilya only caved very late into the incident, when it was all but certain that the board had lost
That’s not my impression?
I obviously don’t know the internal details, presumably there was stuff going on behind the senes. But the threat of all the employees maybe leaving (note that the letter they signed didn’t say that thy would leave, only that they would be forced to consider it) did not seem to me to be that strong of a threat.
The board could, to my knowledge, have just stuck to their guns and kept Sam fired. This might or might not have destroyed the company, but I weakly guess not. And even if it had, Ilya and Mira would not clearly be worse off than they ended up.
it’s notable that ilya only caved very late into the incident, when it was all but certain that the board had lost
That’s not my impression?
I obviously don’t know the internal details, presumably there was stuff going on behind the senes. But the threat of all the employees maybe leaving (note that the letter they signed didn’t say that thy would leave, only that they would be forced to consider it) did not seem to me to be that strong of a threat.
The board could, to my knowledge, have just stuck to their guns and kept Sam fired. This might or might not have destroyed the company, but I weakly guess not. And even if it had, Ilya and Mira would not clearly be worse off than they ended up.
This article said that it involved quite a bit of direct personal pressure and that his reversal was pivotal (but it may not be very accurate).