>they can do what they please. Sell or give it away to the NSA? Well, why not? Exactly. The can do whatever they please. They have the power to tell the NSA

>they can do what they please. Sell or give it away to the NSA? Well, why not? Exactly. The can do whatever they please. They have the power to tell the NSA to take a hike. And that power makes them look strong in the eyes of their customers. And that strong action is not the one they took. They had the power to do whatever they pleased with their data that their customers gave them, and they chose to hand it to the government. And that makes them look weak. This is a perception issue that is not directly (but is certainly indirectly) tied to a bottom line. Sure, they government will give them some cash - and sure they'd fire up a few lawsuits if the companies refused to cooperate. But all of that is chump change compared to revenue from 'all non-US customers'.