I doubt AOL told them to do this, beyond maybe a vague "have fun with the acquisition." But this isn't really insubordination. He revealed almost nothing about

I doubt AOL told them to do this, beyond maybe a vague "have fun with the acquisition." But this isn't really insubordination. He revealed almost nothing about the actual meeting. He just made a bunch of jokes because it's fun and they're trying very hard to show that they're still the same old TechCrunch despite their new owner.