I have a strong feeling that they were using these miners themselves to mine Cryptonight coins. Why would they miss this opportunity to mine Cryptonight coins at 220 Kh @550w per machine themselves, making USD 5000 per month per machine?
Now they fear that Monero (and soon other Cryptonight coins) will modify their code to brick this ASIC, they are selling them out to customers. So they are making profit in every possible way.
Just a thought.
That's how ASIC manufacturers have ALWAYS done business. They sell HEAVILY USED equipment as "new" after they've taken 80+% of the profit.
If that is true then I expect Monero (and later other Cryptonight coins) difficulty to go down (significantly) after this Monero fork.