Having profited from OSS does not mean that the company has profit left over after spending their money on whatever they want. Canonical certainly has had no shortage of frivolous projects that anyone outside could see were doomed long before they were axed, often from inception. Examples that immediately come to mind are Bazaar, Upstart and Mir (the display protocol and required changes in pretty much all applications toolkits, not their now-a-Wayland-compositor).