There was an initiative in Seattle to charge a head tax, with one of the likely reasons to go after companies like Amazon that put a lot of what would be profit back into R&D, keeping the technical profits low. There was a lot of pushback from the Seattle community since the initiative was created and pushed from the city council themselves and not the people and thankfully it was defeated. Sounds bites like 'TAX AMAZON!' sound very good to people who think you're taxing Amazon specifically, but after people see that it's actually taxing a lot of other companies including small-ish companies it turns out to be a not-so-good proposition.

Probably when corporations started being a bit too good at siphoning profits to tax havens, waiting for the periodic amnesty to repatriate them. Several of the best companies in the world at this game, are headquartered in California.

Weird indeed. What happens if the company had $100M in revenue, but a $10M loss?

Are they expected to take out a loan to pay the tax?

They work with the taxman to figure out a payment plan over time. Tax payments can be deferred under GAAP, and also by the IRS if the entity isn't able to pay.

Taxes can be deferred / delayed if the taxman agrees.