Ever worked for a company that was sold?

[Gunslinger08]

If so, how was the experience? Did you notice some things changing before the sale was announced? How did your day to day work life change after the sale?

 

[Ns1]

one friend worked for a british tv production company. was fun until they got bought out by douchebags who brought the hammer down


another friend left his uber stable job to join a tech company. they got bought out and he's probably a gazillionaire now. that company was siri assistant.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I worked for Vanstar, who "merged" with Inacom. I noticed a lot of changes with Inacom (and yes, if any of you were native Inacomers, Inacom was terrible). The company was going under and Compaq bought my portion. At first, we were all excited but the clowns from Inacom still got to run our portion of the company. Finally, the HP merger was announced and I left.

 

[PenguinPower]

Experience...I was made redundant, got a 6mo severance + vacation payout and a new job in 1 1/2mo with equivalent pay and better upward mobility. It was pretty awesome.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yes and they promptly closed everything local and moved the bulk of the company to Mexico. On the + side they paid for my schooling and I started a better higher paying career.

More recently my company bought another company and in the merger that followed, they kept most of the management from the (failing) company and got rid of their existing management, needless to say, the company is now on its way to the same predicaments that put the other company where they were. Corporations...so funny. :hmm:

 

[EagleKeeper]

Worked for Sperry until swallowed up by Burroughs.

Being on the Defense sector it was a non issue. For those in commercial sector, many Sperry slots were lost due to "duplication" when placed head to head with Burroughs.

 

[Kadarin]

I worked for a pre-IPO company that was bought by another company, and my stock options became worth something. Not a huge amount by any means, but it was a very positive experience. Since the buyout, over the following four years or so we saw a gradually increasing amount of bureaucratic procedures creeping into our workflow, and our performance began being measured by (often nonsensical) metrics as opposed to real customer satisfaction.

 

[chelhxi]

We were bought twice in one year. A larger company bought us and then an even larger company bought us all. Nothing day to day changed. We were profitable and luckily the new owners didn't seem to need to change what was working. I wish I'd had some stocks though, as on the second buy-out people got a pretty sweet price on the company stock they owned.

 

[machomocha]

I worked for TCI cable company in 1999-2000, when ATT bought them. the new manager looked us all in the eyes and said there would be no major changes or layoffs. About 2 weeks later they fired anyone that had been there any significant amount of time (10 years or so). they ended up letting about 20% of the company go. We assumed it was because they were making so much money because of their length of employment. I was new there so I stayed. It really opened my eyes to the fact that you can't trust management at all!

 

[WackyDan]

Worked for a company that was bought twice during my seven years there. Went from 250 employees down to 36... I was one of the 36 that remained... They got rid of redundant positions, got rid of our Europe offices that weren't producing enough revenue anyway.... So it did drive efficiency and while it got rid of a lot of good people who were redundant, it certainly got rid of the worthless people with the departments/contracts that were mostly intact.

So... your mileage will vary. I think it really depends on the health of your company prior to purchase and whether you work for a business unit of that firm that has been profitable or crucial to the success of other business units. If you are a hard worker who has built a solid reputation, then you may have nothing to worry about. If anything being part of a larger organization may bring you growth/career potential, and better benefits.

Or not...

 

[Spydermag68]

I have worked for 2 companies that have been sold.

The first closed the deal in the summer of 2001 and after 9/11 fired off 50% of the people.

The second I was a contractor for while process was going on and then I was hired on as a full time employee. Every 9 months there was a re-organization followed by a few people loosing their jobs. We went from 40 people in the department to under 15 when I was let go. The group I was in was making $27,000,000 a month for the company. Before the company was bought sales were increasing at 5% - 10% a year. Then management decided that they would first cut the commission rate paid to the sales people and then totally deleted the commissions to the sales team. Just on prior sales we were still making $27,000,000 a month, but the sales for our product when down for some reason and had to cut 5 people for the group 6 months ago.

 

[bigrash]

I had left a company right before they announced that it was sold. One by one, everyone at the company was let go after I left as the new management took over.

 

[Sheep]

The small U.S. market research company I work for was purchased by a much larger global one. Things have changed with us moving over to the bigger company's accounting and other internal systems, but that's to be expected. I do exactly the same things on a daily basis as I did before the acquisition. Overall personnel has been kept largely intact since our work is very different than what they do--there wasn't much in the way of overlap. Management has been pretty transparent which helps the transition greatly.

I know my experience is not typical or acquisitions and mergers, though.

 

[Tweak155]

Kinda.

I was with a company long enough that they bought out 2 other chains. Then shortly after I left, they were bought out.

Basically the places that were bought out had to conform to our name brand. Lots of management was either removed or had pay reduced. Same with the 2nd takeover. Only with the 2nd, a lot of the corporate team stayed on board and they did it in a smart fashion. Don't acquire employees in the deal, offer them the job and if they leave it is on them.

AMC Theatres if anyone cares.

 

[rivan]

If so, how was the experience? Did you notice some things changing before the sale was announced? How did your day to day work life change after the sale?

I did, and it was sudden.

Strictly speaking, we went out of business and re-opened the next day, presumably as a way to dodge some debt/contracts or some such.

Was announced to employees after business on Thursday to those who were still there (the rest heard Friday AM), went out of business on Friday EOD. It effectively killed the union contracts. IF the new company/owner wanted to hire you, you got a call on Sunday.

I got called Sunday evening, around 7 PM and got an offer for exactly what I was making/benefits/etc before. Only about 40% of the staff made the transition.

 

[dighn]

We were bought twice in one year. A larger company bought us and then an even larger company bought us all. Nothing day to day changed. We were profitable and luckily the new owners didn't seem to need to change what was working. I wish I'd had some stocks though, as on the second buy-out people got a pretty sweet price on the company stock they owned.

Same here. The CEO didn't change, and the parental company exerts minimal influence over us (as far as I can tell). But who knows how long will it remain that way.

 

[SearchMaster]

I worked for a smallish company with great leadership that got bought out by another company with a lot of money but crappy leadership (it was a subsidiary of a much larger company). We were offered 12 months salary to stay for 6 months so many of us did; then when the transition was supposed to be complete the parent company decided our leadership was better and retained us and canned almost everyone from the shitty subsidiary.

So it ended up being a huge win. We got the "stay bonus", things went back to normal and we proceeded to become the largest player in our space. The only downside was my stock options were basically worthless at the time of transition (I had a few at a lower strike price but the vast majority were worthless).

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I worked for TCI cable company in 1999-2000, when ATT bought them. the new manager looked us all in the eyes and said there would be no major changes or layoffs. About 2 weeks later they fired anyone that had been there any significant amount of time (10 years or so). they ended up letting about 20% of the company go. We assumed it was because they were making so much money because of their length of employment. I was new there so I stayed. It really opened my eyes to the fact that you can't trust management at all!

when at&t bought mediaone, they gave us all a lecture about how great at&t was, and things were going to improve for us. i must have been in the wrong meeting because they really gutted the place - i was expecting some "lightning" to strike so they could collect the insurance check. meanwhile as they paid burger flipping wages we were bombarded by propaganda. my favorite was "we have secured the funding for the re-gilding of golden boy!"

that statue made several times more than i ever did there

 

[DaveSimmons]

I worked for a privately held company that was acquired and merged into a larger company.

After the sale I spent some time documenting code and processes, packaging and sending them source code archives, etc.

I didn't want to move to another state so I turned down the offer to apply for a position at the larger company. So I took my first long vacation in years, then went to work at a startup created by someone from my old company.

I also ended up doing some contract work for the larger company, maintenance programming on one of the existing applications. They decided it was cheaper to pay me than to hire an extra developer just for that.

 

[theknight571]

I worked for a bank.

By the time I got laid off (I'd been there 14 years) I'd been through 5 mergers... 4 of which we (at least in my group) knew nothing about until hearing about it on the news on the way to work.

Most of us survived until the last one, which decided that IT issues were better handled in Dubai than on-site.

 

[NuclearNed]

The place I work was sold to a much larger company about 3-4 years ago. Prior to the sale, we were a fairly small company, but had decent benefits and fairly good pay. Our management at the time made out like the sale would be the best thing ever for us. We'd all be rich & retire early.

So now that reality has set in, there has been a mix of the good & the bad. Pay has stayed roughly the same, but big company benefits are definitely worse. The new company has released a lot of our long standing employees, and they have shuffled around a lot of positions. That said, some of us have done real well under the new management. The company is definitely more stable now, and the parent company has poured the money into massive facility improvements. Personally, I was given a great new position which I love; there are a lot more career opportunities with the new company.

 

[kranky]

It's a situation that is the poster child for "YMMV". There could be no changes, there could be massive changes, there could be relocations, terminations, new situations, adaptations, exploitations and tribulations. Just about anything is possible.

 

[KMFJD]

The company i work for was sold , the company that bought us then went bankrupt and resold it to the former owner for penny's on the dollar. The company that we are contracted to was bought out, then they were bought by a larger company and then split into two separate entities.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Yes. Company I am with now was bought in April.
No difference in procedures on my end. My wife also works with me and this is buyout/merger number 2 for her in as many years.
Same old, same old.

In late 2013/early 2014 there will be noticeable changes but at this point nothing. Lots of legal issues to get taken care of in my industry (insurance).

 

[Udgnim]

~15M revenue private company got bought by a ~450M revenue public company

I work part time so I'm pretty low on the totem pole. sales people got changed from commission to salary. obviously different benefits package.

as for any changes affecting what I do or how I do it, nothing changed

think the company I work for is still fairly autonomous under its parent company. biggest change that I'm aware of was sales people getting paid salary instead of some type of commission structure.