In any other situation it would be the CEO leaving. The investors clearly didn't have enough votes to boot him, and took a cashout to avoid it being a total loss.
Yep, the key figure in this piece is the CEO owning 45% of stock. Hard to beat in any vote.
Surely he now owns relatively more than 45% after "undiluting" his stock. He alludes to that being the case by saying the other minority stockholders have increased their percentage ownership for that reason.