This is exactly what Oracle, IBM, and VMware are doing in the
Hudson/Jenkins software fiasco.
Having thoroughly alienated a large community, Oracle is now "donating"
code which includes large swaths for which they do not have relicensing
rights to Eclipse, which is all too willing to accept it. And Oracle
promises that major contributions of labor will suddenly materialize from
the industry partners in the aftermath.
But really, it's just to take the attention and buzz away from Jenkins,
the renamed Hudson project, with all the original contributors and quite
a few new ones. Oracle cannot stand success elsewhere, and
like a bird of paradise seeing unwanted extraneous attention to a peahen, struts and displays to return attention to itself. The community cost is at once potentially large, but also irrelevant to Oracle.