Well there are compagnies in that wild world that :
- are "new" (didn't exists in near 2k)
- have a huge utilization of IP addresses
- do not have enough money to pay 15€/IPv4
Are they just supposed to die ?
You cannot blame the survive instinct :)
Buying a compagny to get its IP are a solution for rich people, I am
pretty sure that google, lvl3 nor akamai will ever run out of IP