Multinational oil companies have cut costs to the bone, laid off thousands of people and seen their profits evaporate.

These retailers are expected to be the first ones to mark down merchandise - and see their profits evaporate.

Or they can stay in Westchester, paying off the mortgage for 30 more years, all the while risking that those heady unrealized profits will evaporate.

Corporate profits everywhere are evaporating, and stock markets are weakening.

Some tribes have already seen large profits evaporate after opening casino doors.

Ltd. said profits had evaporated and it was only expecting to break even this year.

The problem, hotel analysts said, is that profits evaporate faster than revenues.

And in hard times, when profits evaporate, social goals tend to disappear as well.

Beech's profits all but evaporated until the last two years.

Leading diversified laser companies have often seen profits evaporate entirely during downswings in capital spending.