I will state this isn’t normal for large enterprises, at least at that scale. Most software vendors are happy to invite buyers to Warriors games, which is a lot cheaper than the 0.25% dilution. I’ve even seen folks recuse themselves from recommending prior employers because they still had shares.

I think the problem lands somewhere between “widespread corruption” and “never.”

Salespeople can hit their quotas without kickbacks.

What I do see from time to time is this happening “fully disclosed”’at the very senior level. A CEO of a major database company convinces the board to buy a firm that he has an interest in. A CEO “allows” a company to rent out his property for corporate housing. These are fully disclosed, and therefore considered acceptable.