What I find the most shocking in that message is not the fact that a sales rep at a company the size of Acquia is contacting the founder of a competitor product

What I find the most shocking in that message is not the fact that a sales rep at a company the size of Acquia is contacting the founder of a competitor product but more the way Acquia introduce itself: the "Redhat of Drupal". There has been a lot of discussion within the Drupal community about Acquia and how asphyxiating their presence is for the ecosystem, both on technical (direction of the actual project) and business levels (cannibalization of all the sales). I think it's perfectly fine they do so and wish them all the success they can have with this, but their public stance is always very defensive of doing so.