An equal sharing among different groups. Separate classes of preferred stock are frequently structured to be pari passu with respect to liquidation preferences or dividends. As a consequence, on the sale of a company, all of the pari passu preferred stockholders would receive distributions in the same proportions as their relative liquidation preferences, rather than in the chronological order that the preferred stockholders purchased their respective stock. Frequently, the later rounds of preferred stock have liquidation preferences superior to earlier financing rounds so that the last capital invested is the first capital repaid, and the liquidation preferences are therefore not pari passu.