Getting pennies and writing off the rest would be better than writing off the whole amount.

I don’t how much the positive PR is worth, or how much additional costs do they eliminate by renouncing to recover anything. But arguments of the “losing money is good for companies because they recover a small part of it as tax savings” kind do not make a lot of sense in general.

Tax write-offs are profits that were never made in the first place. It's not some sort of a tax credit. The reason you pay less taxes is because you didn't make a (or made less) profit.

You are talking about losses. Unpaid debts/invoices is its own category, and can definitely be deducted (see https://www.irs.gov/publications/p535#idm140359415938416).

Because they are losses.

Anyone see the notional amount of the total write down?

Couldn't find it in the article anywhere.