So I got all of this directly from the upper echelon of Eastman and Willie.
Switzerland has a mandatory retirement age of 65 and Willie is only a few years off. Willie does not have anyone to take the business over he was looking to sell it rather than close the business and leave his employees jobless. He was impressed with how close Shires/Eastman got to the 2900 with their euphoniums, as well as their manufacturing and aims to better their quality. He even took some of their improvements and adopted them in some silent revisions to the 29XX series of euphs.
Qian(owner of Eastman) and Willie came to an understanding that they would keep the proprietary process that make Willson unique, while also modernizing some products to better suit the tastes of players. They are also going to release a Q or K Series Euph with a one piece, hot spun bell like the handmade euphs. If you have been to shows recently you have probably seen the prototypes.
They also brought some of the Willson pricing back to a reasonable figure that the market will bear and the euphoniums are really starting to sell again. Even the tubas are back to somewhat reasonable, instead of nearly $20k. It really helps that Eastman has really pushed some significant sales volume to Willson that they were not getting from Getzen.
Eastman is a great company to work with as a dealer and they have a real passion for what they are doing. I think that this is ultimately a good move for the company and I am really interested to see some of the new horns they come out with.
P.S. I've never really had a problem with Rotax tuba valves and really like the way they play in their stock configuration.