I think the (governmental) department treated them alright, and they made good money too. They were not the types that liked to blend with the younger devs, even for a cup of coffee. I approached them two years ago and asked if I could work with them for some time to exchange knowledge, but I only got a one line email response "not interested". It's not unlikely that they were annoyed that the applications they had developed over the years, which they kept pointing out were superior, were being phased out.