notExactlyI20Seriously, what's up with big sites literally dying as we speak?
effingnerdI have a sinking feeling that these moves are not about money, but more about power and manipulation. If you squeeze these user bases such that the savviest users are forced out, those more likely to ask "Why?" about damn near anything, you will own access to a group of people that can be influenced to think/do/buy whatever the top management and/or majority shareholders want. If you lose a few million users, what does it matter if they were dissidents to your goals?
Not money per se, but 21st century oil, aka data.
I guarantee it's primarily about improving their ability to harvest and sell user data.