Conversation so far:
What did Jimmy Wales accomplish?
Though Bomis had struggled to make money, it provided Wales.
Where was he from?
devoted to the philosophy of Objectivism in the early 1990s, Wales had encountered Larry Sanger, a skeptic of the philosophy.
The.
What did he do?
two had engaged in detailed debate on the subject on Wales's list and then on Sanger's, eventually meeting offline to continue the debate.
What happened to the two?
becoming friends.
Years later.

Question: What was the explanation of this?
Self-contained rewrite: What was the explanation of becoming friends?