Usually what happens is that 60 something year-old founders have retained control and not shared profits with their employees. Looking to sell, the employees ca

Usually what happens is that 60 something year-old founders have retained control and not shared profits with their employees. Looking to sell, the employees can’t buy out the founder, and the founder finds PE with deep pockets. The fork in the road for keeping the company out of PE was passed long before the founder got to retirement age.