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Even unprofitable companies, they won’t let die. My uncle worked for a company that hasn’t made a profit in years. They got ‘bought’ repeatedly by the company that promises to lay off the least people. From what he hears from former colleagues, a 300-man workforce looks at their shoes all day because there are no clients left. For years. Why don’t they leave? Their salaries and, eventually, severance pay is guaranteed to be payed out by a state-level insurance fund, because obviously the company has no money. Plus they would miss out on the generous unemployment insurance if they leave of their own accord. They aren’t even having fun, they spend their days in a mixture of gloom and excruciating boredom, this is a pure societal loss.
Why would another company but an unprofitable company? By the way, maybe you're French, so I should tell you it's "paid".
They don't really buy, hence the quotation marks. It's for a symbolic euro, or if their savior plan includes investment of their own money, they'll ask for the original debt on the bankrupt company to be discounted, tax breaks, etc.
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