It is possible for a company to have a nice work culture even while doing exploitive work. Doing good by the local community seems even easier to believe

The downvotes are likely because, much as the other reply to the OP outlines, they're not really right. While Acxiom _has_ been a staple in the AR tech community for decades, they have also garnered a pretty horrible reputation over the last ~10 years or so. The company is a slow-moving monolith with frequent layoffs, stagnant (low) pay, and no real direction. People are leaving in droves.

They actually recently sold off (or announced a plan to) the portion of the business that exists in AR[1]. Instead they will focus on some startup-ish company they acquired in the SFBA, which seems to be their only profitable venture at the moment (or the only one the CA-based CEO is interested in).

[1] http://katv.com/news/local/axciom-to-spin-off-or-sell-its-tr...

While I definitely disagree with the op, I personally didn't downvote, but honestly who gives a shit about downvotes?

Or they thought the comment didn't attempt to form a balanced argument based on the context of the original article?

Or any other reason to downote aside from "Hurrrr. I'm just a sheep".

Try not to assume everyone here is dumber than you.

(PS no need for the scare quotes on "opinion". The use of that word was already negative in context. The scare quotes push the disdain a little bit too far)

Devil's advocate: he added his OPINION, which, even if he's unbiased (not an employee for example,) it's still an opinion.

It doesn't mean we should be keeping those coal companies alive.