There's plenty they could have done before the contract was signed. They could have easily pushed for double trigger acceleration in their own contracts to prevent this.
Company's officers fiduciary duty is to protect interests of shareholders. Complicating contracts with the purpose of transferring that wealth from shareholders to executives could be construed as violation of that duty.
"Transferring wealth" isn't an abandonment of fiduciary duty, it's exactly what you do when you hire people and pay them. Nor is there anything wrong with negotiating contracts describing the details.
Good point. Just saying that unless you're a founder or a majority shareholder, you have little power in terms of blocking the deal from going through.
