All good points Fish.
The system works using hydraulically controlled, mechanically deactivating rocker arms on each valve. Each cylinder can be deactivated independently. The hydraulic control valves on each cylinder are electrically controlled. The article glazes over the complexity from this aspect. This is the part I worked on

As far as that company. Yes, it used to be US based. It's also an international corporation now. It also has ZERO US manufacturing anymore... not sure how much longer engineering will retain US operations, but I still get a paycheck for now. We are pretty much owned by bankers for whatever that tells you.
You can look up the public history, but it went bankrupt a decade ago. That was what really brought on all the changes. From what I can tell it was driven into the ground by some, for lack of a better term, corrupt execs when it split from GM. I don't think it has much to do with how we tax corporations in the US but the fact that we can let them get away with changing their HQs to avoid paying taxes in the US. I don't want to get into any details of that because I have some opinions that aren't popular. The whole situation is more complex than it looks though.