“A rising tide lifts all boats,” so the saying goes. But when it comes to the venture capital industry, not all boats are being lifted to the same heights. According to The Wall Street Journal’s Pui-Wing Tam, brand-name VC firms tend to corner the market on top Internet companies and thus benefit “disproportionately” when it comes to IPOs.

Analysis by VentureSource shows that Accel Partners ^[1], Sequoia Capital ^[2], and Redpoint Ventures ^[3] have basically cornered the market of IPOs and sales of startups this year. The report notes that for 2011, 200 other VC firms had one offering and many others have had none.

But this could have as much to do with business savvy as with the fact that some of the larger VC firms benefitting from the wave of IPOs have long-established networks and relationships as well as “past investment successes,” that give them the edge in accessing hot tech properties. This also means that the return gap has also widened.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal ^[4].