Just how many small stocks are in the Marathon class of being worth more dead than alive should be known by next week and while the quarterly cash reports might be a useful starting point for a vulture investor it is also likely that there might not be too many worthy of a raid.

The problem, which was revealed in a survey by the accounting firm BDO, is that an alarming number of small companies are simply not worth anything at all.

BDO found that of 861 companies surveyed, 191 only had enough cash to cover one quarter’s cash burn. The accountants also found that 321 explorers had less than $1 million in cash, and 485 had less than $2 million.

It is stating the obvious, but $2 million does not buy much these days, and might not even be enough to attract a hungry vulture.