[beachwood23]

Sounds a little desperate now.

MSFT should just give the employees space to make their own decision.

[jm4]

I don't think so. These people are at a company that may not exist anymore next week. It's right around the holidays. It's a horrible time to have uncertainty about employment. I would assume most of them would find it reassuring that there's an opportunity for a seamless transition. Just because there's an open offer doesn't mean they have to go.

[DonHopkins]

And having a solid open offer from Microsoft makes it much easier and less stressful to quickly get a great offer from somewhere else.

[outside1234]

Or they can go and simultaneously bid themselves or whole teams to Google and Facebook. The option cost is zero to do this.