What's to say that the new CEO of one of these companies wouldn't pull a Google Reader and axe the service, for the sake of consolidating product lines?
Or that the companies themselves wouldn't be merged?
> Or, who from 50 years ago is still around to be trusted? The list to choose from is short. IBM, HP, GE, TI...
Pretty sure there's no shareholder value in paying to preserve data for someone who's not paying fees and is not going to sue because they're dead. Those companies (or any for-profit entity) absolutely cannot be trusted to provide a service like this; their profit motive means they'll cheat, sooner or later.