Going by the various takes and stories I read over the last few days, I imagine the deal you describe worked because it was indefinite; however, IPO is not only putting pressure to juice up financial metrics - it's also setting an end date for the deal. Once the company goes public, the leadership can, like investors, just cash out and let the whole thing sink. Even if this was always the plan, as long as the "exit" was a non-specific "at some point in the future", everyone could kind of forget about it. Putting a specific timeframe on it completely changes everyone's perceptions - like with iterated prisoners' dilemma, even if the end is still far away, the game changes its nature the very moment that specific timeframe is set.
Going by the various takes and stories I read over the last few days, I imagine the deal you describe worked because it was indefinite; however, IPO is not only putting pressure to juice up financial metrics - it's also setting an end date for the deal. Once the company goes public, the leadership can, like investors, just cash out and let the whole thing sink. Even if this was always the plan, as long as the "exit" was a non-specific "at some point in the future", everyone could kind of forget about it. Putting a specific timeframe on it completely changes everyone's perceptions - like with iterated prisoners' dilemma, even if the end is still far away, the game changes its nature the very moment that specific timeframe is set.