Advice for Surviving a Buyout?

Anonymous for Good Reason asks: "I'm working for a small-medium sized software company that looks like it's going to be bought by a much larger company. We (employees) aren't being told anything yet, but the behavior of our management and some of the information we have been asked to provide all make it pretty clear that somebody is going through due diligence and trying to close the deal. How have other people fared during these kinds of buy-outs? What did you do to make sure you kept your job and weren't RIF'd after the dust settled? How did your stock options, pay, benefits, etc transfer, and was there anything you would have done different to protect yourself? Was the cultural change a problem, or were you welcomed warmly into the fold? I'm mostly interested in stories from people whose companies were bought by the really big players (IBM, MS, Sun, CA, HPaq, etc.) since that's what this will probably be. Since I have never been through a merger of this type, I'm not sure what to expect and with the current economy I would like to increase my chances of staying employed. Any insight the Slashdot crowd has would be interesting."

Comments

My experience

[drightler]

I worked for a small privately owned ISP which was bought out by a larger local ISP. There wasn't any transfering of shares to worry about, but we received stock options at the new company and our pay remained the same. After 60 days we all had to option of staying or going and most of us stayed. A year later a nation-wide telecommunications startup bought us and again, pay remained the same although we got screwed on stock options. This telecommunications company let us sit and waste away while they were trying to figure out why they bought an ISP concidering they had no clue how to run one and 8 months later the layoffs started. The layoffs never stopped. They continued until the day that the doors on our office were closed and the telecommunications company pulled out of the state completely. I got out before I was laid off as did my girlfriend, but I had friends who are _still_ unemployed and that layoff was almost 2 years ago.

I sincerely hope your experence is better.

Here's what happens

[Violet Null]

Big company buys small company -- most likely for small company's tech, or customers, or what have you.

Big company institutes its policies on small company, perhaps cuts some of small company's redundant staff -- small company's HR department, for example, goes bye-bye.

Small company is now dependant on big company for resources, like HR.

Attrition begins on small company: if big company is doing layoffs, small company has to do layoffs with it, but small company doesn't get many (if any) new hires.

Small company, which now has less employees, can do less, resulting in big company treating it like a liability and stepping up the attrition rate.

Small company eventually folds, with any remaining employees fired or relocated to wherever big company is.

Long story short, big company buys small company because small company has something it needs. Once it has it, it doesn't need small company beyond a short transition period, and it's not going to keep small company around.

Yes, I'm cynical.