Your company was just acquired...now what?

Hasn't happened to me, but my company is the one doing the acquiring lately. We've scooped up 3 other firms within the last 2 years or so, one very recently. I always wonder what that's like for the company being acquired, and my fellow sales reps at that company. Would your first instinct be to jump ship, or would you stick it out to see how this pans out? At face value, would you see this as a positive or negative if your company was acquired, without adding any nuance about how good or bad your company might have been before the acquisition?

War stories are welcome here...

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funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Depends on what company acquired us. If it was one I liked and had some faith in the leadership I'd stick around to see how it panned out while keeping an eye on the job market. If I didn't like the company, I'd be looking for a new role as soon as the acquisition was announced.

I'd say that usually acquisitions are positive knowing that another company thought we were valuable enough to buy.

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I agree with this. When we got acquired, it was by a great company and it was an exciting time. I ended up staying for years. Thinking back, had we been acquired by some of the other potential companies in the mix, things might have been very different.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

So many variables here.

I'd stay, keep my head down, and look on the down low for other positions if I felt like my job was in danger.

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

I would begin my job search immediately but plan to stick around and see how the acquisition pans out.

If I end up finding a great opportunity during my job search, awesome I'll move. If the new company turns out to be super cool and I see myself enjoying the change, great. I just don't want to be caught with my pants down if they start layoffs or anything like that.

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

HMFIC

@saaskicker I swear to god I didn't see your post before I wrote this, and I just realized you not only have a similar thread, but almost the exact same subject line haha. Great minds think alike!

Everyone check out his/her thread here too.
https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/my-company-is-getting-acquired-what-now

saaskicker

Tycoon

Enterprise AE

best of luck with your acquisition!

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Went through an additive acquisition 3 years ago and a “synergy” acquisition last year. One was a lot more fun for everyone. I am still at the synergy one as my division is untouched but it’s been brutal to watch my friends get gutted. It was obvious that it would happen from day 1, too.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Really depends man on multiple things who acquired, what's their vision after acquisition, what's the synergy from this acquisition etc etc.

I had worked in a company long back that was acquired and they wanted to restructure the entire shit so they laid off all.

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

HMFIC

Yeah that's rough. I think my first feeling would be fear of being laid off, especially if I really liked where I worked. But it's a legitimate concern, especially if they're only buying of the company to remove them as a competitor or something, and don't want to add a whole lot more head count.

SgtAE

WR Officer

if your company is less than 100 people:

1. your ceo's/founders get put on 6 month consutant retainers
2. everyone gets a bonus in the company, big celebrations
3. Sales team gets shipped out/moved to the new HQ or they get put under the existing sales org
4. HR and legal are getting axed and replaced with the bigger firms team
5. culture change happens rapidly post people getting axed, people with long tenures at the company we're laid off with little notice, a sense of survivor syndrome kicks in
6. Some people stay, but others can't handle the fact their work family just got canned and their culture is dying in front of their eyes so they jump ship too
7. The office is now half empty and you've got around 6-12 months before the lease is out so you're stuck in a shell of what was once an amazing office with bustling unique culture.

For reference: Happened at my company, we were on the acquiring end and had the reps move to Aus from NZ, i went to work in the NZ office, imagine a 90 person office with 7 people coming in daily, place looked like a fire alarm went off and everyone just left their stuff at their desks..it was quite sad honestly.

MCP

Valued Contributor

Sales Director

Depends on how much overlap there is in offerings. If they’re very different from one another, the sales team is usually safe because cross training is a bitch. Most lay offs happen when the solutions and / or customer bases are similar. It’s more concerning for management as that’s where the redundancies are.
The real issue is comp plan changes. Monitor that and then see where u go from there.

payton_pritchard

Executive

RSM

So many factors at play, I don't think there's one right answer.

It definitely doesn't hurt to start taking some calls and see what's out there. Being a part of an acquisition especially at a small company is often seen as some sort of badge of success (regardless of if it was a positive acquisition and how much you actually had to do with it) and you can parlay that into more responsibility/money with a new company who is looking to follow the same trajectory as you are now an employee who "knows what it takes".

On the other hand, if the sales team is being retained there can be some great reasons to stay -- continue vesting, realign salary/title to something that fits the likely much larger company that did the acquiring, etc.

Unless you're higher up in management it will be tough to know beforehand how it's all going to play out. Maybe the acquisition is only for the tech and the sales team will be let go in 3 months post closing, maybe the sales team is given some sort of overlay role, maybe you become part of the team of the larger company.

Long answer short, I have no idea lol