Going Concern Value

See: Going Concern.

To continue...going, the concern or company has to have...a business. It has to be viewed as an ongoing thing that has value. If it's hemorraging cash, and has only a few bucks left in the bank, then it likely fails the going concern value rule, and instead of valuing its assets at, say, book value or whatever price they were acquired for, the company has to value those assets at whatever value they'd command on eBay under a quick volume auction scenario.

This tweak creates (usually) a huge write-down in balance sheet assets, compounding an already bad situation. Think of it, more or less, as the financial trip to Oregon on the way to visit Kervorkian Suites at The End.