"... surprise to most in the STEEM community, including us."

I was not at all surprised! The writing has been on the wall for the past year or so as the Steemit platform continued it rapid decline towards total failure. If it did not partner with, or be bought out by someone, it would likely have been left with no other alternative than to shut down, as it's membership numbers continued to drop, and the quality of the Steemit Forum Platform continued to deteriorate.