Comparing Owens Corning (OC) to K-Mart

Now who in their right mind would compare Owens Corning and K-Mart Bankruptcies as being very similiar.  Apparently Laura Mandaro at Market Watch would on her article about Investing in Bankrupt Companies.  Here is the article.

And this is what I wrote to Laura Mandaro:

Laura,

I believe your article on investing in Bankrupt Companies is only half true.  In the article you use K-Mart and Owens Corning in the same context.  Why I don’t think that should be done is because K-Mart’s Bankruptcy is extremely different than what went on at Owens Corning.  K-Mart went bankrupt because it had to compete with companies such as Target and Wal-Mart.  When they come out of bankruptcy they still have to do so.  Owens Corning on the other hand was never a bad company and only filed for bankruptcy for a one time event.  Major Asbestos Lawsuits put Owens Corning as well as other major players in the industry into bankruptcy but coming out of bankruptcy the company is as good as it ever was.  So therefore using K-Mart and Owens Corning in the same context of an article is in my opinion extremely misleading.

- Eric