Net cash / net debt

Net cash compares what a company holds in cash and similar investments with what it owes to lenders and bondholders. A company with net cash could repay all its financial debt tomorrow; a company with net debt could not.

Neither is automatically good or bad: borrowing can fund growth, but high debt leaves less room when business turns weak. Several of the “What went wrong” cases show what happens when debt meets a downturn.