Comment by mikeash
13 years ago
Say you sell lumber, and I sell furniture, and buy a lot of my raw materials from you. You start making furniture too, and your furniture seems a little too inspired by mine, maybe going over the line of what's legal, so I sue you. However, your lumber is still top quality despite that, so I keep buying your lumber even while suing you over your furniture.
In your example, 15-20% of your lumber sales are to me, so regardless of what happens with the furniture situation, you still want to keep selling me lumber. It's a symbiotic relationship.