From TFA: "Salesforce executives were first made aware of the project in a February meeting, and they had signed off on the project, according to one person with knowledge of the meeting."
They had executive signoff until half an hour prior to the talk, and they didn't see the text revoking permission until after the talk. I'm not sure what else they were supposed to have done.
And Alkove was there - physically present. He could've warned them off in person, and made sure they knew what was up. No one is going to care why he didn't.
Aware and signed off on the project and aware and signed off on the defcon presentation are two different things. I only know what I've read in this article and discussion on this, but I don't read "Salesforce executives were first made aware of the project in a February meeting" as meaning they had corporate sign off (they may have, but thats not what that sentence means)
They had executive signoff until half an hour prior to the talk, and they didn't see the text revoking permission until after the talk. I'm not sure what else they were supposed to have done.