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Wiki is out of date. Softbank acquired graphcore ages ago for many million dollars. Employees got zero times however many shares they owned. For related readin

• cyberax 1y ago
  Well, it's not much different. The investors with preferred stock got some money back, taking a loss overall. So this was basically a bankruptcy with employees and founders getting nothing.
  • JonChesterfield 1y ago
    "Founder liquidity" is worth looking up. If you're curious about this specific case, UK companies register accounts that can be read by anyone. I'm mostly calling this out as an example of why "public" is an important error in the op. Were the shares publicly tradable, the employees that chose to could have exited.
    • cyberax 1y ago
      I'm not familiar at all with the UK law, but in the US the founders typically get common stock. They can't have it treated preferentially during acquisitions. "Founders' stock" refers to the preferential tax treatment (TLDR: almost zero taxes via QSBS).