Well, or it could simply serve like a canary in a coal mine or be the tip of an iceburg. It may not bring down other companies with it, but other companies may be in similarly dire condition and just haven't had to go this far yet.

Actually, as we saw last Fall, psychological factors can be just as important as financial factors. I think most high finance folks thought it was impossible for overnight credit markets to freeze up overnight, but that's basically what happened when fear and suspicion, and not hard financial news, caused everyone to hold onto their purse strings really, really tightly all of a sudden.