[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Being bought out is always risky. You never know who's suddenly going to become redundant, or which departments they'll want to relocate. But I've also never been on that side of a buy out, so it'd be an interesting new experience.

Seven times, all on the acquired side. It sucked almost every time. There's massive confusion and real work basically stops while priorities are re-evaluated. The best acquisition of which I've been part was the most recent, when my tiny startup was acquired by Nokia in late '07. Apparently it was also Nokia's smoothest-ever acquisition and now our group is a model for future M&A. Still, even with that, there were weeks where nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing or why or for whom.

All I'm saying is if it looks like your company is going to be acquired, keep your options open.