Near the end the article says something about how employees felt Hughes et al. were dishonest, and if the article's telling is accurate that certainly seems the case. Especially for Hughes to publicly praise Foer, give assurances that he will stay, and meanwhile be looking for a replacement for months does seem a bit slimey, though I guess people do this kind of thing all the time in business.

Not being a management expert I wonder how to handle that specific aspect better. One thing that comes to mind is to communicate your intentions well in advance and allow for a slow transition. Maybe that's naive and wouldn't have been possible, I don't know.