I’m sure Boeing has great lawyers who know how to structure a deal in a way that they’re always protected....
The story is Embraer had conditions they had to satisfy, and they didn’t make sufficient progress. I’m guessing that given the outlook for the next couple years plus the Max fallout, Boeing didn’t have the same appetite to complete this deal that they had 18 months ago, and rather than give Embraer some slack on the remaining thresholds, they chose to hold to the letter of the contract.
Reminds me of the 1991 deal for Delta to save Pan Am. “The world has changed.”