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Dividends, kickbacks, etc.

That's not how venture capital works. They need liquidity events to make their 10 year fund model work.

Not all VC. :-) Indie.vc has a cash distributions (aka dividends) option in their investment terms.

Sales provides liquidity; dividends just bundle it into packages.

When the government is your VC it doesn't matter if your company is a roach motel for cash.

Oracle, Microsoft, or IBM. Any other?

A large military contractor would be way more likely (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumann, etc).

I could see any of the large professional services firms or government/defense contractors being interested.