Once the employees know that their CEO is "shopping" the company, it seems like the CEO should have known they would be looking towards the exits (unless, of course, they had lots of equity which would turn into $$ once the acquisition happened, which case they would likely stay put). It was not only kind of sleazy to try to, essentially, sell your employees to another company as if they are your property, but also not very business-savvy. If she had simply taken Apple's "acqui-hire" offer, she would have made money, burnished her reputation as a founder who successfully "flipped" to Apple, and probably gotten VC money to try again.

Now, I think she may have acquired a reputation as someone who ends up treating her employees like her personal property? Maybe she's an awesome boss normally, but if this is all you knew about her, I think I would not be interested in working at her next gig, whatever it is.