To shut a company down has surprisingly high costs. As far as I know, bmibaby is not losing a large amount of money, so it should be possible to turn it around, given sufficient attention from management. Thus, if sold cheaply enough, even for a notional £1, there is presumably some other airline with existing UK infrastructure (Easyjet, Flybe, Jet2, Monarch or Ryanair) out there that would want to take on baby