Reply #5: ah yes, the beauty of sub-corporations

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many gargantuan companies are actually just holding companies that have ownership of other corporations. the rest of us would think of those other corporations as divisions, but they can be set up in such a way that they are immune from each other in terms of bankruptcy or liability. all that connects them is ownership, and owners' liability is usually limited to their investment. and profits they already sucked out previously are safe (except in a few cases, where they can be deemed a fraudulent conveyance, e.g.)

so you'd think that when you sue a ginormous company, they have deep pockets and can pay whatever the liability is, but in fact, the entity that did damage to you was one of these subsidiary corporations, which only held limited assets and funneled any profits up to the parent corporation.

that's the design.

lovely, huh?