Mostly they seem to do it to move CapEx into OpEx.
I never quite understood why spending more money is better if it comes from a different bucket. I'm sure there's some explanation that only makes sense if you don't look too closely.
I always assumed it had to do with taxes... CapEx can't be written off in it's entirety, but rather has to be calculated as depreciation over time. OpEx however, is a business expense can be written off completely.
I'm not sure how that really benefits an organization with a time horizon that is longer than the time it takes to depreciate a server. You still get to write off the full price of a server, it just takes a few years longer (and it was probably cheaper!). But then again, I'm not in finance...
I never quite understood why spending more money is better if it comes from a different bucket. I'm sure there's some explanation that only makes sense if you don't look too closely.