Elsevier employees should just quit and work somewhere else. It's just a matter of time before their business implodes. It will be a miserable process and anything to speed it up benefits everyone.
Sure, the board has fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to drag this out as long as possible. But the employees should just walk. Elsevier is a travesty and employees should feel ashamed to be associated with it.
Hypothetically; Elsevier closes today. What happens to their mountains of papers?
I (and many others) constantly mine their journals for old experimental data. Don't get me wrong I'll be dancing on their grave when they close. I'm just concerned the old journals will get sold off to the next big publication house, or worse, get shuttered and closed off for everyone.
Edit: It occurs to me many universities have copies of the old journals and could setup their own sites to host it as soon as copyright isn't an issue.
Sure, the board has fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to drag this out as long as possible. But the employees should just walk. Elsevier is a travesty and employees should feel ashamed to be associated with it.