There are even more crazy steampunk ideas out there, like pulling ships with giant high-altitude kites https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/giant-kite-sai...
But are you sure they are bankrupt? The Internet claims "The company says the purpose of the acquisition, for which the price was not reported, is to strengthen the development and commercialization of “Seawing,” the automated kite system". That might be bs of course.
There also seems to be anther company trying it out, https://cargokite.com/
They are still developing the technology:
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/k-line-automated-kite-system...