My example. A company I worked for was bought by Cisco. During the vetting period, people from both companies worked together to see if the deal should move forward.
Part of the contract that both sides had to sign included a clause that everyone that was involved in the vetting process could not work on anything related technology wise for 18 months after if the deal fell through. (As Cisco had a competing product already that our company made).
This was more in cisco's favor as they have a full team that does M&A and handles this vetting. So the engineers involved on cisco's side in the vetting would likely not be key engineers on the product.
Large companies are accustomed to isolating people in M&A deals from the rest of the company to be able to prove clean room easily.
Part of the contract that both sides had to sign included a clause that everyone that was involved in the vetting process could not work on anything related technology wise for 18 months after if the deal fell through. (As Cisco had a competing product already that our company made).
This was more in cisco's favor as they have a full team that does M&A and handles this vetting. So the engineers involved on cisco's side in the vetting would likely not be key engineers on the product.
Large companies are accustomed to isolating people in M&A deals from the rest of the company to be able to prove clean room easily.