I agree some people seem to say these things with an unrealistically short timeframe in mind. But I think when most people say a very large company is in trouble, they're talking much more meta, because they understand that 50+ billion dollars takes decades to burn through.

Alan Mulally, arguably one of the most effective modern day leaders, has a great quote about his [former] company: "We have been going out of business for 40 years." This is what most people are talking about.