"I'll simplify. I saved the company $75k randomly bumping into Tony in the hallway."

No, the company almost lost $75k because they fail to make it clear who is working on what. Especially when there are many teams, there should be a place (possibly a website) where one can immediately find out what each team is working on, or is going to work on, in order to avoid this kind of situation. Otherwise the company shoots itself in the foot by not having a decent communication channel. The hallway conversations helped here, but are really no substitute.