So true. It's happening to me right now. New owners took over and laid off most of our UI team, then transferred the remaining guy to a different department. Then, when they realized there was no one left to do UI development, they asked me to learn how to do it. I said sure, because it's a great opportunity for me, but I pointed out that it isn't going to happen overnight. So now I'm getting paid to learn, but the project is basically dead in the water because there's no one who can do the front end.
I'm as certain as I can possibly be that the new owners didn't give any serious thought to the technical needs of our project. They just assumed there was fat they could trim, when our team was already almost as lean as it could possibly get and still function.
The power of magical profit-driven thinking in action.