How do you know that they have made a profit? And further more how do you know they made a bigger profit than a, for example, low risk stock investment would have made. The investment needs to have a big enough return to not be squandered from a time vs return perspective.
Or an alternative theory could be that they did not yet get the minimum needed return and as such are transitioning to free to play as a means to make back what they can before it's to late. Not saying this is the case but without actual numbers nor reasonings of EA's board you really can't claim it would be closed down by now if it failed.