npm, Inc. was an unsuccessful business that got acquired for a pittance because MS can afford to throw away a few million dollars in case it turns out that having control over npm is useful. The team working on it isn't very large but I'd still be surprised if it's actually operating at a profit.
NPM did not go well, and selling to Microsoft happened after the team there fell apart. In my view some of that is leadership issues, and some of that is pressure from a struggling business.
