I can see that happening or reverting back to FAA. Sometimes when you establish a brand, its difficult, even detrimental to change the name..Look at Home Depot. This company is associated with Building,home improvement and etc. They would not change their name at this point. Besides,, the presence they built up on the internet is key. FAA had built up a brand that is easily seen in search engines. And, Art is an easy word to search for. Pixels is a rather new term and people looking for art wont necessarily go looking on a site with that name. IMHO.
Im sure he has discussed with others at length and I for one would be suspicious of any marketing agency that would agree to do this. But, what do I know,,I am probably completely wrong. ITs happened before and it will happen again. But it also cost me lots of $$$ to learn from my mistakes.
I think your right about the sponsorship things and pixels.