At least he managed to say, if only privately, "I'm not going to be a party to this" (most likely leaving a significant pile of cash and/or equity on the table in doing so). Which is way more than many CIOs/CSOs do in similar situations.

Of course you or I might like to believe we would have taken a more overtly defiant stand (by going public for example). But then again, we weren't there, in his shoes - now were we?