Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Companies must make profit, or they vanish. Oh, buddy. That's how it's supposed to work, but that is not how it works at all.
What do you mean?
The strategy here is often just trying to operate at a loss longer than your competition. If your competition finally can no longer borrow, you buy them up and have a monopoly on the market, allowing you to price gouge.
There are other reasons a lender might lend to a perpetually-unprofitable company. For example, you might lend to a company to maintain a competitor who doesn't really compete, in order to avoid a monopoly breakup, or lend to a holding company that holds product with no intention to sell it, in order to maintain artificial scarcity (i.e. housing, diamonds).
Note that in none of these examples are you competing to provide the best products at the lowest prices.