The point I was trying to make is that it's not important whether it was a public announcement or not. It is quite clear from the posted email what their thoughts are on scala. The email talks about developers at Yammer and gives specficic reasons and examples. The point is made clear and loud.

Now they realise it might not be good for PR and try to "fix" the situation appealing to the fact that the email was not meant to be public which is both ineffective and unelegant.