I think this is one of those areas where a competitor buying you can make sense. Either your product is attractive to higher margin customers, at which point they are buying into a higher end market, or your product is part of the low-end, and by buying you out and shutting you down, they hope to convert some of your lower margin customers to higher margin customers, and let some of your high-maintenance customers go bother one of your mutual competitors (which is honestly the most Sun Tzu-ish, borderline Machiavellian, reason to fire a customer)