[andyk]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought when a company goes bankrupt, they just disappear into the ether! I mean that’s what would have happened to GM, right?

[muawiyah]

Useful assets are sold off to willing buyers who think they can use them. Sometimes that will include entire operating divisions ~ employees, lock, stock and barrel~

The point about the American form of bankruptcy is to get useful and productive assets back into business as soon as possible to go about the business of improving life for everyone.

Older forms of bankruptcy were used to allocate residual assets, or the value thereof, to the investors ~ frequently without consideration of where they could be used, or why. Entirely too many things were sold as junk under the older philosophy.

Still, some businesses, GM for example, have already been gutted by the former management team and probably ought to be sold for the value of the scrap iron and dirt.