I've worked as a consultant for 4 or 5 large companies that got acquired. One of the first things that happens is they throw out all the consultants of the acq

I've worked as a consultant for 4 or 5 large companies that got acquired. One of the first things that happens is they throw out all the consultants of the acquired companies. This is different than startups. In the case of large corporate acquisitions, the benefits are mostly cost savings. "We have this many overlapping functions, if we can get rid of 40% of the people in each of them, the deal pays for itself." To answer your direct question, I was very late into all of the companies, and didn't survive any of the acquisitions. The changes were very quick. It's part of life as a consultant. (I'm not one anymore)