Instead, Hughes has a small equity stake in the business.
GE Financial Assurance has also made a small equity investment in CompuBank.
It would also have left BP and Rosneft with small equity stakes in each other.
Most startups kick off with "friends and family" funding – a mini pot of cash raised in return for small equity.
It is the reason participants are willing to sign over a small equity share just to appear on the show.
"We would have a developer do a project under contract by taking a small equity stake" in their company, Mr. Kotick said.
Under the new proposal, Mr. Hicks and Mr. Perot would still sell their property to Palladium, retaining small equity stakes in the development.
But bondholders, who are owed $27bn by the carmaker, have been reluctant to swap their debt for a small equity stake.
Investments of that size are a niche market, because larger funds do not want to take such small equity stakes, Mr. Gabbert said.
Merrill Lynch, for example, which has a small equity investment in Terabeam, lost use of its traditional fiber optic loop after the attacks.
(Shaq was given a small equity stake in the company and a place on the board in exchange for breaking the news using the site).
