They realized they had gotten their math wrong:

1 dying company + 1 dying company ≠ a successful company.

(they'd probably overlooked the little slashy line through the equals the first time around)

The reason to do this was to boost their share price when they announce that they were actually not interested...

by gaming the system, now they can come back with a lower offer and observe that now that the share price is lower it's more affordable.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat until the price is right.

The markets are so easy to manipulate if you've got enough money to throw around.