[tsotha]

A relative of mine worked in contracts while he was in the USAF. He hated to deal with small companies, because you could never count on them to deliver. On more than one occasion while he was there the Air Force took delivery of a half-finished doo-dad (satellite or sensor or whatever) because the company that won the contract went out of business before they could finish. Picture the shell of a satellite with wires hanging out next to a big stack of documentation of questionable value.

And then there were the companies that couldn't deliver on time but hadn't gone out of business yet.

"What do we do here? We could fine them a bunch of money for being late, but if we do they'll go out of business and we'll never get the thing they're supposed to be making for us. I guess in theory there's a chance they could still deliver if they're still around."