A running, profitable business is worth a lot of money. Nowadays, can't even give away a dilapidated building full rusting machinery. With modern remediation laws, you can't just walk away. Close a factory and you're in for 20 years and and possibly billions of dollars of remediation. Never mind that the economy is begging for USA made stuff for sale.

The thing is - investors and regulators learned the game of the fellows buying out companies, loading them with debt, then closing them down in bankruptcy. The truth was that those businesses enriched the shysters at the expense of everybody else, investors included.

The company I work for got sold to private equity several years ago, and it was the best thing that had happened in 10 years. They poured investment in, sorted out management, and stopped the foolishness our previous parent company engaged in.