Skip to content

Comment on Ask HN: About to Be Acquired by MSFT

Comments

A company I worked for got acquired by a bigger competitor. The founder/CEO gave this inspiring speech about how day-to-day operations wouldn't change, there would be no layoffs, and that we could continue to operate as a separate entity, and we would have the resources of the bigger company at our disposal.

I didn't believe a word of it. The point of acquiring a competitor is to shut it down, or absorb the best parts of it. Within a few months the CEO announced he was leaving to spend more time with his family, and a bunch of projects that were in progress were suddenly put on hold indefinitely. I left before the layoffs.

I was in a similar situation. But in my situation, the acquiring company was very clear, they only wanted to take our customers. They did not care about our tech or our people.

Some people moved to their company, maybe like 5%. The rest of us watched as they nickel and dimed us out of existence. Layoffs ever 6 months. After 10 years of this, in my arrogance, I thought it would never happen to me. That when my number came up. A year later the place closed.

On the positive, they treated me very well in the layoff process. 3 months healthcare and pay, classes on how to obtain a new job, and office space to work on a new job.

Unfortunately for me, we had just had our second child and the market for hiring was awful. In 6 months I had only one interview. And it was for a company that sucked, I would rather not work than work for them. A buddy of mine got the job and hated it, left as early as possible.

I am happier now, although I still have fond memories of that job. And I still rely on resources from the outplacement.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.