Will National American U's online pivot be enough to keep it alive?

In January, the company that operates National American University added language to a securities filing that probably no corporate executive enjoys having to say.Management noted the company's $8.7 million working capital deficiency and cash shortage raised "substantial doubt regarding the Company's ability to continue as a going concern." In other words, the for-profit college operator might not survive the next 12 months.Accounting guidelines for when a company must issue such warnings were laid out in 2014 and got their first major test when Sears Holdings issued a "going concern" warning in a 2017 earnings report, tanking its stock and roiling the retail world. (Sears would go on to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection about a year and a half later and faced potential liquidation before its former CEO bought its remaining stores.) Of course, National American is in the education business, not retail. Market dynamics aside, a shutdown would mean leaving more than 1,000 employees jobless. And in this case, the customers are students, many of whose lives would be severely disrupted if their college were to go out of business. The recent closures of Education Corporation of America and Vatterott Educational Centers reminded the higher ed world just how disruptive shuttering a college chain can be.