Another once high-flying company, Oxford Health Plans, was hurt by problems with its billing system, though it cited the switch to a new computer system.

But when the markets turned sour, some of these high-flying companies were brought back to earth with a thud.

When a high-flying company suddenly loses money amid allegations of accounting irregularities and mismanagement, it is often time for the chief executive to start packing.

He was in senior honours studying corporate law and had a series of traineeship interviews lined up with high-flying companies.

Howard Dean's implosion calls to mind the fate of too many high-flying dot-com companies in the wake of the 2000-2001 crash.

When Ms. Dean took labor's helm here, many high-flying high-tech companies were using cleaning contractors that paid their janitors the minimum wage and scant benefits.

Despite its concentration in small stocks, Fidelity Low-Priced Stock doesn't buy high-flying emerging companies.

Phillip Merrick was one of the original founders of webMethods, a high-flying company that went public during the Internet boom.

Sometimes, the losers are also the owners of family businesses that have been acquired by high-flying companies.

They can boast that they have "never sold a single share" of their high-flying companies while still being able to buy their jet and fly it too.