Please stop saying "difficult decision". You asshats needed to try to save yourselves plain and simple. Seriously-would have had more respect if they'd have been honest. But...I am sure that our wonderful corporate office provided all kinds of phony empathetic guidance with a handy FAQ to those that delivered these messages.
Believe it or not there IS a proper way to do this. There is a more respectful way to do it. Maybe Max should have written a "how to terminate your team " for dummies.