Not good. Not good at all.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/opinion/corporate-debt-bubble-att-ge.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
"In the last decade, well-established companies including G.E., AT&T, CVS Health, Sherwin-Williams and Campbell Soup went on acquisition binges fueled largely by cheap borrowing. As interest rates rise and the economy appears to be slowing, they are in not-insignificant danger of defaulting on the debt, a fear that has started to cause disturbing ripples in the debt and equity markets."
"G.E. has $115 billion of outstanding debt, about $20 billion of which is due within a year, and it is “burning cash,” according to a recent report by a JPMorgan analyst. Its pension plan has gone from a surplus to reportedly being underfunded by some $29 billion"
"Then there is AT&T. With about $183 billion of debt outstanding, it is now one of the most indebted companies on the planet, thanks to its recent acquisitions of DirecTV and TimeWarner, which were paid substantially with debt. AT&T’s debt is also rated BBB, although only about $11 billion is coming due within a year. The company’s chief financial officer has said that AT&T will be able to “manage its obligations” from the cash it is generating. But the heavy debt load leaves little margin for error, making a tricky merger — combining a legacy phone company with a major content provider — even more difficult. “I’m not even sure what AT&T is anymore,” said Christopher Whalen, the founder of Whalen Global Advisors, an advisory and economic research firm. “It’s kind of a resurrected zombie.”