
How to Survive an Acquisition - rbranson
http://charity.wtf/2016/02/03/how-to-survive-an-acquisition/
======
HillRat
In my experience, there's only one rule to surviving an acquisition: _find
political cover immediately_. Upon acquisition, you and your team are an alien
entity embedded in BigCo's immune system of political networks and operating
rules. They don't know what to do with you, you are a threat to established
patterns, and _you will lose to the experienced players_. So unless you have
C-suite cover and a title to match it, you need to find existing, powerful
entities with complementary capabilities and a need for what you do. If you
make yourself useful as you are, then your patrons have an incentive to not
meddle too much with your team. But if you don't have anyone protecting you
out of self-interest, eventually you and your people are going to be absorbed,
rebuilt and rebranded.

I mean, that'll happen anyway, but at least you have the option of staving it
off long enough to get your team safely out of there.

~~~
baconner
I've been through 3 acquisitions one very badly done, one well done, and one
several years in that im still on the fence about. This is great advice in any
case.

Even in the case when say one of your side is brought into the c suite it's
important to understand that you need to find acceptance and a reason to exist
according to the rules of the buyer however bizzare they may be. In the case
of my one bad acquisition our ceo came in as cto, but couldn't navigate the
nightmare politics of our buyer. We still ended up lacking cover and lost a
ton of great people to burnout and political hijinks. Our products suffered.
Our customers suffered. It took us too long to understand the rules of the
game and that the real interests of the company were at odds with making our
products and customers successful. Or at least that was not the primary
concern.

It's tough, figuring out the ground rules. Best bet is to make sure you are
working in the best interests of someone who does and can guide you through
it.

~~~
baconner
Or of course, just move on! Could be that's the best advice most of the time.

------
MrTonyD
I was once asked to be in charge of an acquisition. We would let the new group
(over 100 people in a building on the East Coast) keep doing the same work
with the same management. What they didn't know was that that is code for
keeping them isolated from the real company. And we would even assign a multi-
talented team to integrate their product with our doc group and engineering
groups - in a show of how important their work was to our company. What they
didn't know was that that was really done so that I could prepare a list of
technology worth saving for the CEO (Let's call him Larry). The plan was to
spend perhaps six months understanding their code, another six months taking
the parts we want, and then letting them go. There was really nothing they
could do about it. We simply wanted to consolidate our position in the market.

Since then I've spoken to other CEOs who were acquired by that company. They
boast about how they were allowed to keep working on their projects and how
they were important to the company and their great relationship to Larry as
part of a Fortune 50 company. But then, over time, they found they weren't
being given freedom anymore and they left. They just never really understood
what was really happening.

------
mathgeek
> 3-4 hour daily commute

It saddens me that anyone thinks this is acceptable. I know some people don't
mind it, but what a waste of your life to do this for any extended period of
time.

~~~
cm2012
I have a 3 hour commute (by express bus with comfy seats, etc.). Honestly, I
just use the commute time as "me time", not too different from hanging out at
home.

The long commute lets me be close to my parents, in a neighborhood my wife
likes, $1100 rent for a 2 bedroom in NYC, etc.

~~~
ascagnel_
Where the heck do you live that you can get a 2BR in the NY metro area for
$1100? Even the scuzziest areas start at $800-900 for a 1BR.

~~~
dyeje
Well, he is 3 hours out. There are alot of cheaper areas in that big of a
radius.

~~~
benatkin
Guessing it's 3 miles total. So roughly 1.5 hours each way.

~~~
cm2012
This is correct. 1.5 each way.

------
VLM
The real advice, having been thru many non-coastal telecom mergers:

Its just like a merger on that old TV show Survivor, there's 3000 of us, 100
of you, and after "synergy" there's only going to be 3000 positions, so
nothing personal but you are all gone.

The first meetings with the new bosses are a job interview, treat it as such.

Highest priority should be a transfer into the buying company. You want to get
on to the existing team as the newest hire, not sitting on the team that's
being picked bare before downsizing. Existing teams in the big company have
political power and thats all that matters.

Start saving every penny, your job is gone but you have warning you'll be
looking for work soon. You may have relo expenses, may not find a job
immediately, who knows.

Its easier to find work when you're the first rat to desert the sinking ship,
not the last. You want to be the first guy to get a new job. Unless you're 64
and planning to retire, ignore a couple thousand bonus if you stick around.
Six months of lost income is probably a lot more than $5K if you're the last
downsized. Pretend that bonus doesn't exist unless you're planning on retiring
or dropping out.

Assume you've lost it all. The job title, the work environment, the benefits,
the vacation time, the seniority, the freedom, the technology. If you get to
keep any of it after the merger, you'll feel better.

Sometimes the merger is the time to get away with things. Why, I've always
been able to work from home. This is my last chance to upgrade the software
without 500 pages of paperwork and procedures, hurry up!

~~~
marktangotango
I experienced an unusual variation of the acquisition. The company wasn't
acquired by another company, but sold out a majority interest to a private
equity firm. I did as you suggest here, started looming immediately, jumped
ship after the next major release. Turned out it was mistake, the company
actually did quiet well, and didn't have the mass layoff I feared. I liked the
job and regretted leaving out of fear.

------
CaptSpify
> Assume good intent. Aggressively assume good intent.

I can't account for anyone else, but my experience says the exact opposite.
Most of the acquisitions I've seen, are because the acquiring company wants
IP/contracts/some other good that they can't build themselves. Once they have
that, the employees are on the short-list.

Obviously every acquisition is different, and should be judged by it's own
circumstances, but, having been on both sides of the equation, I'd recommend
being skeptical of everything they do. It _is_ hard to do that without
becoming toxic, however.

~~~
grrowl
I think she means it in a day-to-day sense. People will make comment and put
forth actions that could come off as rude or malicious, but it's more likely
they don't understand where you're coming from (a culture clash which could
lead to discussion, or to fights, depending)

~~~
spimmy
Yeah, or just completely oblivious. Most of the technical "advice" they
insisted on giving us was just completely wrong.

Also, gotta say, I was never as self-conscious about being a woman in tech
until we got acquired by Facebook. I've never had so many experiences of
walking in to a room (as a tech lead) and having a dude look me up and down
and say, "ummm, how technical are you?"

~~~
HCIdivision17
Like, literally? I could see a question like that being _asked_ , but I have
no idea what a possible answer would be for anyone. Perhaps "7.2" might be
pretty ok, but otherwise I can't fathom a single answer that isn't sarcastic,
snarking, or arrogant.

I'm plonking that alongside "when did you stop beating your wife"-style trap
questions.

~~~
spimmy
"Try me."

------
aphexcx
Thank you for what you’ve built. Our app is backed by Parse, and you’ve made
it possible to help real people in a critical time because of how well you
executed on your vision. I’m sure you’ve heard the same from the myriad other
companies you’ve enabled thanks to the mBaaS innovations that Parse pioneered.
I’m dismayed as everyone else that Facebook’s bean counters missed this
immense forest for the trees of immediate profitability. They won’t soon
regain developers’ trust.

------
reality_czech
In my experience, the first thing to do is to build yourself a little fortress
out of binders and printouts. If it looks like you're going to get fired,
pretend to be mentally handicapped so that they are afraid of a discrimination
lawsuit. Then switch to whatever team has the best donuts, and spend the rest
of your time at BigCo playing bullshit bingo with the pointy-haired ones.

~~~
Rexxar

        ... and spend the rest of your time at BigCo playing bullshit
        bingo with the pointy-haired ones.
    

So your solution is to become one of them ? (the pointy-haired ones)

It would be nice to find a solution that doesn't increase the pointy-haired
entropy of the world.

------
mattiemass
Holy moly. I've been through an acquisition, and it was the complete opposite
experience. But, I have a bad feeling this post is completely right and this
is typical. Must really feel terrible. I'm glad this person shared, and I hope
they don't get into any kind of trouble over it.

~~~
logfromblammo
I have been through five as an employee of the acquired company.

My advice is to polish up your resume and dig your job search network out of
the mothballs the _instant_ you catch a whiff of one. If you're lucky, you
will have approximately one year to find safe harbor before the storm hits.

I always ask leading questions about ownership structure and acquisitions at
interviews now.

~~~
tdeck
Would you mind sharing some examples of good questions to ask in an interview?
It seems particularly hard to evaluate companies as an interviewee when
they're trying to be secretive.

~~~
logfromblammo
I don't know about _good_ questions, but here's one that I ask.

"I have been through a few acquisitions, and all of them ended badly for me.
Can you tell me a bit about the ownership structure of your company and their
exit strategy?"

You have to watch their facial expression as you ask it, as they will almost
certainly tell you that the current owners have no plans to sell that they are
aware of. (Your interviewers probably won't include any owner required for a
majority bloc.) But they also might tell you some names, and you can check for
yourself after the interview what generally happens to their peon-level
employees.

------
chris_wot
There is literally only one thing to do: get your resume together and get the
hell out. If they offer you options that take 3 years to actually occur,
ignore them. If you believe in your product, take a few weeks to get over the
shock, then find something else to sink your teeth into!

~~~
seattle_spring
I wish I would have followed this advice. I was part of a very large
acquisition that netted me a measly $30k. The retention package was sizable
(for me), but it took your quoted 3 years to even begin vesting.

I left at the end of year 2 and was miserable for almost a full year prior to
leaving. I didn't even have any financial gain to show from it.

~~~
chris_wot
Mate, you live and learn. Whilst the experience might have been horrible, I'd
say you've probably had positives come from it. For me, the positives were
that I learned that I must commit 100% effort into any place I work, but I've
got to be able to move on when necessary.

I'm afraid I'm still learning how to do this, but it has helped me get out of
my last job before I completely burned out.

~~~
seattle_spring
I hear you, and definitely did learn a lot. Sadly I've got a severe case of
burn out at the moment.

~~~
chris_wot
It happens. Be kind to yourself and take it easy.

------
ldehaan
Since they covered up all the pages stating what parse is and does, can
someone tell me here. What is parse? And what is it used for?

~~~
depoll
Parse is a backend as a service provider -- originally for mobile apps, but
eventually for all kinds of applications. You could store data, manage users,
target and send push notifications, gather analytics, etc., all without having
to build your own backend.

~~~
ldehaan
Nice, that sounds useful. I guess it's good that they're releasing some of it
as open source then. :) I've built a couple backend systems for mobile and
other, I've used Kafka/zk for messaging primarily. I'll have to check this out
more in depth, thanks :)

~~~
mtmail
Here is a feature list of current alternatives
[http://kinto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/overview.html#compari...](http://kinto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/overview.html#comparison-
with-other-solutions)

------
aflyax
I think a good thing to assume is that when you work for someone, the product
is not your product, but theirs, and the customers are not your customers, but
theirs.

------
ArkyBeagle
What an excellent article.

Absolutely disengage. What's past is past.

Trust (not quite) no one. I've only had people depending on me in one of the
five acquisitions I've been through, and I simply told them exactly what I
think will be the result.

Quintuple check the evaluation criteria and totally, ruthlessly overfocus on
that. This is a test. Identify any Catch-22 early and escalate these quickly.

Then do what you can to reengage. But you will almost certainly be a redheaded
stepchild. Look at it as an opportunity to reinvent yourself a bit. Chances
are you have close to nothing to lose. IMO, relaxing is better than not
relaxing.

------
ultratoast
>In retrospect, I realize that a lot of tiny acquired startups _don’t_ know
what the fuck they’re doing and so the behemoth just gets used to assuming
that everyone is like that. Just grit your teeth and take it.

This, I'm not sure if this should even be considered a negative. Too often
start-ups and smaller tech companies try to reinvent the wheel and call
themselves 'agile' or whatever. As a contractor I'd almost always rather deal
with a large company - if for nothing other than a dedicated payroll dept.

------
bakztfuture
Sad to hear the end of Parse :( so I put together a collection of its
evolution over time: [http://www.startuptimelines.org/startup-
timelines/Parse/](http://www.startuptimelines.org/startup-timelines/Parse/)

Wishing the team well in any future endeavours

------
haiwenchen
I love the domain.

------
VeilEm
> One of Facebook’s internal slogans is something like “always do what’s best
> for Facebook”.

Is that real? Like they really have this slogan that like comes straight out
of a modern interpretation of Marx's theory of alienation shoved right into
their employees faces?

[http://i.imgur.com/oVb4J0b.png](http://i.imgur.com/oVb4J0b.png)

~~~
lazzlazzlazz
I have never heard of this as a slogan at Facebook and I have close ties
there; this seems like someone venting emotionally.

~~~
spimmy
I am absolutely venting emotionally, I thought that much was clear. :) But I
heard a variant of this in dozens or hundreds of meetings, generally when a
project was getting shut down or canned or reorg'd, so it's not true to say
that it's not true.

It's not even a _bad_ slogan. Company priorities _should_ come before
territorial interests. This is why it's important to work in a place that
shares your values at a high level.

~~~
derefr
I think people are juxtaposing "what's good for Facebook" not with "what's
good for [territorial subunit]", but rather with "what's good for the lives of
the people working at Facebook." A slogan like that is sensible in the first
case and terrifying in the second case.

~~~
spimmy
I think you're right, and I completely intended it in a practical, non-
incendiary way. People would constantly say they weren't there to pursue
personal, political agendas, they wanted to have maximum impact and do what
was best for Facebook. It's like the #1 catchphrase you have to memorize to
get ahead. It makes sense. In most cases, it's even true.

I may have a separate set of issues with Facebook People policies, but there
are a ton of really passionate, amazing engineers working there who deeply
believe in the mission (or at least their local specialty). I miss many of
them very much and wish them all well.

------
ldehaan
Founder is so far from employee it's ridiculous you even comment.

It's sad that most founders don't care or don't understand that sometimes they
managed to hire people that actually care about the business, and could have
helped make it better.

When I see a founder sell his business, all I ever think is (as I'm sure most
do), what a selfish asshole.

~~~
radley
_> When I see a founder sell his business, all I ever think is (as I'm sure
most do), what a selfish asshole._

You must be new here. Some useful info:

[http://ycombinator.com](http://ycombinator.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
chris_wot
I've been here a long time, and I frequently think the same thing.

~~~
radley
It's not uncommon for founders to sell their company. Even Paul Graham (who
created Hacker News) has done it:

 _In 1996, Graham and Robert Morris founded Viaweb, the first application
service provider (ASP). Viaweb 's software, originally written mostly in
Common Lisp, allowed users to make their own Internet stores. In the summer of
1998 Viaweb was sold to Yahoo! for 455,000 shares of Yahoo! stock, valued at
$49.6 million._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_progra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_programmer%29)

------
dquail
"Surviving," "Trauma," "Shock","Dismay" ?

I've founded a company through an acquisition and led mobile for another. Life
was definitely much much better before the acquisitions. But the perception
that it's anything but a first world first world problem ... is a bit
misleading and entitled.

~~~
depoll
That's a very dismissive attitude toward real emotional attachments. The loss
of something you've poured your life into can genuinely be traumatic,
shocking, and dismaying.

I don't like the notion of applying the "first-world problem" dismissal to
things that aren't trivialities. It's one thing to laugh about how you have to
get up from the couch to get a remote. It's another thing entirely to talk
about major changes to one's career, wiping away years of their work, or the
loss of something they care deeply about as a "first-world problem".

Sure, getting acquired might be a "good problem to have", but it doesn't make
its toll any less real.

~~~
dquail
Fair enough. There are real and powerful emotions at play.

But it's a bit of a stretch to suggest an employee at a company founded 5
years ago has "poured their life into."

Personally, I'll reserve evocative language of loss for things beyond a
strategic shift at the office - but I shouldn't judge others who view things
differently.

~~~
depoll
Consider, briefly, that the relevant question is what it meant to the OP, and
clearly for her it had that impact. Having been through many of the same
experiences (I, too, was an early Parse engineer, though I left about a year
after the acquisition), I can tell you those feelings are real, and that it's
definitely possible to form that kind of attachment to your work in well under
5 years.

