A reasonable person, when told "Company A is buying and will operate Company B," would interpret that as "all of Company B" including its assets, liabilities, cash, property, patents, AND employees. They would not think "Well, ackshually, they're just buying the corporate entity itself, which doesn't technically involve keeping the employees..."

If "reasonable person" means "someone with literally zero experience reading any business or acquisition news whatsoever" then I agree with you. Hell, the OP literally begins the announcement with, "As expected."

Only if you believe the primary purpose of a corporation is to provide employment, as opposed to generating profit for its shareholders.

(To be clear, I think the latter is both descriptively true and normatively good)

Any reasonable person who has paid attention to business news over their lifetime would not be surprised to see layoffs following a corporate acquisition.