writing from scratch - throwing the baby out with the bath water

Well, yes. They did. They did it by making the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make:

They decided to rewrite the code from scratch.

another classic I love to dig up from time to time.

_{Quote Citation: JOEL SPOLSKY, “Things You Should Never Do, Part I – Joel on Software”, APRIL 6, 2000, https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/}