No prizes for identifying the prime candidate at the moment - Cordiant Communications - which may, or may not, be a stand-alone, independent company by the end of the month.
With hindsight it is possible to identify the telling signs of a debacle in the making. Over-ambitious expansion is one sign when combined with paying too much. Debts become too high and then all you need is a recession and the destabilising effect of a few high-profile losses of business to rivals to almost complete the disaster.
Cordiant managed to tick most of the boxes. Then, with things so fragile, all you need is a bit of bad luck or unfortunate timing. When Cordiant received the now-notorious letter from Allied Domecq serving notice of the end of its contract it seemed like the start of the end game, even though the revenues involved last year were little more than £18m. Journalists ringing up for a comment last week prefaced their questions with the comment: "Cordiant's f***ed isn't it?"
In reality things are not as bad as they look. The problem has been partly caused by timing and the levels of accountability and disclosure now required - quite properly - of companies in a post-Enron era. Had the letter from Allied Domecq arrived three days later it would still have been a blow, but not a catastrophe.
Then Cordiant would almost certainly have completed the refinancing of its debt, filed its accounts for 2002 and announced annual results in line with City expectations. Hardly a story at all.
Instead Cordiant's shares went into free fall and a temporary financial arrangement had to be cobbled together to enable the company to make the disposals it needs for independent survival. Because of uncertainty about the future, Cordiant's auditors qualified its results because they could not be sure the company should be treated as a going concern.
It all looks as if Cordiant is in a process of meltdown. Indeed that might still be the outcome because once confidence goes, for whatever reason, clients often go too.
Rivals such as Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP and Publicis will obviously be sympathetic - as in sympathetically helping themselves to Cordiant's top staff and business.
Yet things might have been so different if the company had been able to get its results out in an orderly way. Then people might have noticed that savings were ahead of plan, that profit margins had actually improved in the worst recession for a generation, and that the core of the company going forward, Bates Group, actually increased its operating profits by nearly 44%.
Maybe when the dust settles a more balanced picture might emerge. But when the hunt is already under way it is almost impossible to call off the dogs.
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