In contrast to Enron, these companies have strong asset bases to put creditors and customers at ease.
"As a medium, that will help us come through whatever softening there is because we have stronger assets than in '91".
Although the company has strong assets that appear to have an enduring competitive advantage, below are some of the risk factors that could impair my cash flow assumptions.
"While Irene comes in with many talents and Kraft has strong assets to work with, this move seems to imply to us that the company's turnaround was not yet gaining sufficient traction," Nelson wrote in a report Monday.
It's also worth noting that when Finger, whose background is in CPA advertising, took the job as CityGrid's CEO in April, he found a company that had strong assets, but that also still had a significant technical debt due to its reliance on legacy technology.
Wikio certainly has strong assets in Europe where competition and localization is close to non-existing (Google news is very limited and they never managed to impose Froogle vs Kelkoo) but they will have to face serious and well funded US players like Technorati, NewsVine and recently acquired NewRoo.
Union Bank of Switzerland in turn had a stronger retail and commercial banking business in Switzerland, while both banks had strong asset management capabilities.
In telecoms, for instance, private-equity firms are mostly trying to buy established firms often former national monopolists that, while they might be threatened by internet telephony, have strong cash flow, physical assets and plenty of scope to improve the quality of management.
