This is a great example of the rule that "there are no rules". Here is the ordered list of Post-IPO ownership for "Officers & Executives", a category which includes founders as well as execs brought on between founding and IPO.
Microsoft 71.2
Ebay 60.9
Oracle 47.9
Netscape 45.4
Apple 43.4
Google 32.0
Numerical 26.9
Genentech 25.6
Yahoo 24.4
Logitech 23.1
Sun 21.2
Rambus 20.7
Riverbed 17.9
Atheros 15.7
Actelion 12.0
MIPS 10.9
Cypress 7.7
Vertex 6.1
Virata 4.1
Arm 3.7
So we founders, IF our company survives, and IF we remain with the company, and IF the company IPOs, are going to keep between 3% and 71% ownership.
One might be inclined to say that it's even worse for employees, they average $100,000 [page 13]...if the company survives and if ..etc. And they have no power to negotiate the terms under which their stake gets diluted. Google and Microsoft each minted thousands of millionaires among the rank and file, but those are the exceptions.
VP's are shown to average $1,000,000 on the same page. But that's only for companies which actually make it to IPO. And while $1,000,000 is a lot of money when it's yours, that's not FYM in Europe or the US.
What's interesting to see is also that for most of these companies, the total number of shares issued at IPO was below 10%. Info on who sold what when would be interesting as well.
