If Michael Arrington is Fired, Why is TechCrunch Publishing?

If the ship (or at least the captain of the ship) is going down, if founder Michael Arrington is really fired from AOL, then why is “his” (technically: Arianna Huffington’s) site TechCrunch still publishing? The first thing you do when the corporate overlords freak out on your publication is conduct a work stoppage. The conclusion you would draw is: that’s a lot of people who could lose their jobs, and they don’t feel like Arrington could protect them. (He couldn’t, likely. They work for AOL.) So apparently the demands made by Arrington — essentially, “sell me back my site or let me do whatever I want” — are not being met. (Did anyone not see this coming?) The best part of this is that no one can back down from any of their positions. Can you smell all the lawyers at work now??