“Maybe the new, larger organization recognized that it’s past time to escape Calif. ?”
This could be the reason. OTOH, in my career as a manufacturing consultant, I dealt with many situations like this where the money people acquired an asset from somebody looking to cash out. I can’t think of many that resulted in significantly better organizations or operations. This includes acquisitions by big names like Siemens and Black & Decker.
Somewhat like Boeing moving HQ to ChIraq?