I have no reason to believe that Netflix paid $1 million for a recommend algorithm and then threw it away. Many DARPA projects from the 1990s were "cancelled"

I have no reason to believe that Netflix paid $1 million for a recommend algorithm and then threw it away. Many DARPA projects from the 1990s were "cancelled" and then mysteriously showed up fifteen years later. Either Netflix is lying about throwing it away, or we are supposed to believe a company that is fanatical about making money, to the degree of churning out 'sastificing' films and guiding users to them, is somehow also mr. butterfingers when it come to letting research grants slip through it's fingers and discarding the sucessful results.. Something smells fishy about this article. At what point do we admit tech companies don't operate for money and have their own private purposes?