From what I hear the Maxcoin Devs actually didn't want to do this.
1GH is forcing the issue as they are more than 80% of the hashing power.
While they are still 80% of the nethash, the overall price has plummeted and hash rate has dropped to less than 15% of peak which means less revenue.
But since Maxcoin belongs to 1GH, it's there's to do with as they please!
~BCX~
So ... when the network is being controlled by a 51% entity,
the minority of the network can change the rules and attack the consensus.
I love it!
1GH and Maxcoin Devs are working together to control and price fix MAX.