The decision of whether to continue a product line within a large corporation is very, very different from whether or not a product line could keep a small business afloat. If you're a small business, the only question is "are we making payroll?". Within a large, diversified corporation, you have to ask if a project is as valuable as your alternatives. Mom-and-pop's with a sustainable business can't and don't say, "Yeah, this is profitable, but it'd be more profitable if we dropped everything we're doing and put our resources towards a different sector entirely." But it's entirely feasible and rational for a large corporation to look at it's hundred sub-businesses, axe the ten least profitable, and put the people to work on the ten most profitable.

I'd be a lot happier if modern corporations were small, narrowly focused beasts, and not the monstrous conglomerations we have instead.