mandrake may be having some problems financially, but they have consistently put out a quality linux product. hopefully it does NOT die. its one of those distros that consistently keeps other distro companies on their toes.
the main problem with mandrake is it doesnt exactly fit a category of linux. it tries to be a business AND enduser based linux, but suffers from the lack of clarity in that model. its already got stiff competition in the business world from SuSE and RedHat, and the endusers generally go for something more technical without the ease of use features such as Gentoo or Slackware. Its a line that shouldn't be ridden.