Reader Stories on being acquired
Please provide in the ‘comments’ box below any stories you have about what it was like to be in a company that acquires another, is acquired, or merges. (If you have tips or suggestions for people in these situations, please leave those HERE.) These stories will help others to see that their own situation may be very similar to others.
Surviving M&A 
I am part way through a merger which has been very interesting. My company was bought by another firm with about the same number of employees but a lot more available capital. So the feeling (and the PR) initially was this was a merger of equals. Nope – as we all know by now, the BUYING entity is the winner and calls the shots. In three months my manager has been fired, I have been demoted and moved to another unit with another manager, then moved back into another role (maybe a promotion) with a third manager. I got a bonus this year which was a surprise. And I survived two reductions in force. My main counter-intuitive advice so far is, don’t be too eager to take on new work that is without an “owner” after the merger. I’ve seen a lot of my colleagues take on new projects before they understood the new organization, and set audacious goals to prove their worth only to miss project deadlines within two weeks because so much stuff was out of their control. You need to be picky, otherwise you will set yourself up to fail.
Mark
21 January 2011