Probably, because it provided them with more likely paths to monetization having everyone dependent on their server infrastructure. An argument could be made that if Zoom wants to build positive equity with the security community then open sourcing the Keybase server might be a good way to do that.

The only positive Zoom is interested in is the rate of growth in their bank account.

Partly b/c when Keybase was in due dilligence with Zoom they wouldn’t make any major decisions like that.

Now that the deal is done and appears to have been primarily an acquihire focused on adding E2E to Zoom, Keybase may be low enough priority for Zoom that open sourcing it is a viable option now.

Eg, it doesn’t sound like Zoom wants to allocate any dev time to Keybase, wants to stay focused on Zoom, and probably can’t sell Keybase without its developer team who are all working on Zoom now. So hopefully they’ll just open source it and let the community take over.