Comment by Suppafly

>Sounds like extortion with extra steps? Maybe there’s a more charitable way to tell the story.

How? The original company could have hired another employee to replace him, instead they entered into a b2b relationship with his company.

I've often considered something similar. I used to support a bunch of apps, where I thought "I could build most of these from scratch and they'd be better than what I'm supporting." Even if my employer didn't find value in them, and hired someone else to support the old junk, other companies would probably buy the new ones.