Yeah, as quoted in the article, a "Microsoft spokesperson" said they were consolidating west coast labs, and before that, a sign that they don't want to lose some of these people:

"[Confirms the report] and noted that an undisclosed number of those researchers will be offered jobs at other Microsoft Research labs."

I think there's something intangible though, about having some research presence in the middle of Silicon Valley.

The 'intangibles' you speak of are housing and money.