&gt; It&#x27;s pretty common for companies to get minority stakes in competitors to get an in.<p>Do you have an example of this? It will be conflict of interest and may bring anti-trust issues. No competitor will allow access to confidential information and board proceedings to be observed by competitor.<p>I have only seen this happening when two companies settle some legal claims (ex: QTM-Data Domain) or form partnership (not competitors, ex: MSFT-FB) when one party is private&#x2F;startup and other public. Typically public company will divest the stake when startup have IPO.