How to Deal with an Acquisition?

Question

I'm working as the lead developer of a small team, and the boss just blindsided us with the news that we're getting acquired. The plan seems to be that we'll be a subsidiary for the near future but after that it's up in the air. The acquiring company is in the same line of business and our software probably duplicates at least 50%. Our tech stack is completely different and our development team is much smaller. I feel like I'm at a career crossroads and I'm not sure how to proceed. I love the company as it was but I imagine that it's going to change quite a bit. I'm not really a fan of their tech stack but I do only have limited experience with it. I'd like to move into doing more management and less coding, but I'm not sure if doing that in a tech stack I'm not fond of will be rewarding or grating.Fellow HNers that have dealt with this, what did you do and how did it end up for you?

MrWiffles · Accepted Answer

The same thing haired at my company this year. It was an acquihire, straight up, and they led with that fact right off the top, but told us our existing brand, company, structure, etc would be unchanged until at least the end of the year. Well today we got a first look at that change, and what they’ve done is take all our managers and put them under a middle tier guy from the acquiring company then shuffle the people around so that some of us have new managers as soon as tomorrow morning. And who goes where hasn’t been announced yet either.
It seems to me that in our case this is the first step of eventually eradicating the acquired company entirely, a near borg-like assimilation, just slowly enough so as not to be jarring to the engineers that they ultimately want (us).
Moral of the story is that in just shot every case, the acquired company gets phased out, its evolves “assimilated”, and the new order is established on high with the unspoken hierarchy of those being acquired aren’t really part of the whole, not really anyway. You wind up getting tested as the B team even if you’re provably better than their A team.
So yeah, your job is about to change and you’ll be assimilated. Have no illusions Scott their goals, the way you liked things is being killed off, intentionally. You’ll never have the political clout internally that you should because of that unspoken hierarchy, and that likely hamstring your effectiveness as a manager.
In your shoes, I’d be dusting off my resume.

vanusa · Answer

Life is a series of unknowns and nothing is certain, especially in business.
There's only one thing that really matters at this juncture is that they better damn sure be offering you a significant retention bonus -- something on the order of 3-6 months of salary, just to help you "ride the wave", as it were. And because most likely the principals are getting far more significant retention packages, so you better to be sure to get your deserved share of "crumbs" as well.
If they're not offering a bonus (or only a very meager one), then I would consider that a very red flag.

leed25d · Answer

They may be acquiring your company to get the software engineers. This was a somewhat common practice in the mid and late 1970s, the old is becoming new again. You're probably safe.