Instead of payment, an app dev owns a % of app sales for the lifetime of the app

On the surface this sounds like a crazy idea, but I would love to hear opinions on it. This works for the company if the company did not have the manpower or capital to support the apps. It may work for the developer as a steady stream of reoccurring revenue while he/she continues working on other projects.

A lot of details would need to be ironed out such as percentage of app sales/banner ad sales. The app developer would actually own the app, but the company would own the data.

What do you guys think? Does this have any traction or has it been done before?