> A more forward-thinking deal would have bartered for, say, a lifetime allocation of Amazon Web Services credit. You'd prefer an unlimited gift card over cash

> A more forward-thinking deal would have bartered for, say, a lifetime allocation of Amazon Web Services credit. You'd prefer an unlimited gift card over cash? Amazon is a top provider in cloud services now, but you'd be betting a lot on them in the future and essentially locked into their platform (if you wanted to get fair value for the IP addresses). Cash is a much safer deal, and as noted they will invest it anyway.