OK role-playing time:
I'm a microsoft spin doctor. My company has just gone to court, and had a judge rule that the company was abusing it's monopolistic powers. All sorts of hell breaks loose, the judge wants to break up the company, the Media hates me, the stock price drops like a rock, my boss loses 9 Billion bucks in one day. What do I do?
I send a nasty gram to my most vocal opponents. Opponents who have a large competitor company behind them to back them up, financially, legally, ethically, and spiritually. Opponents who fervently hate my guts. And will tell the whole world that they hate my guts.
What was this guy thinking?