Don't most of the VC funds have a limited life of 10 years? What happens to their shareholding in these sideways companies when the fund wraps up?
The Limited Partners could force the dissolution of the fund after ten years--the remaining assets, including any private company stock, would be distributed to the LPs--but they generally don't want to deal with direct ownership of the equity of a company going sideways. VCs are usually better at finding creative ways to sell their piece of a business for some small amount of money, so they would rather the VC take the responsibility for it.