[fireflies_]

Probably a rewrite – HNers always seem to have stories about being brought in to work on companies with incomprehensible rats nests of code that are impossible to extend any further. I bet that's pretty common, more common than technical debt actually forcing the company under.

Still if you really want to take the analogy further declaring technical bankruptcy could cause business bankruptcy (see Joel Spolsky). You probably want to refinance your debt and get onto a repayment plan (an incremental rewrite) instead.