If they don't have the right to distribute the source code, then "open source the code anyway" doesn't really do any good. No one else will be licensed to use i

If they don't have the right to distribute the source code, then "open source the code anyway" doesn't really do any good. No one else will be licensed to use it even after the company discloses the code to the world. It would just be like if a hacker broke in and released their source code.