This is super true and super scary. I've been involved on both sides of this a few times, and you wind up spending so much time, energy, and emotion on the poss

This is super true and super scary. I've been involved on both sides of this a few times, and you wind up spending so much time, energy, and emotion on the possible big deal you stall out hard - and when you compare incentives between the acquirer and the acquiree, it's in their best interests to string you along to devalue, but it's in your best interests to keep doing what's made you valuable in the first place. Treat it similar to a big enterprise sale with a ton of stakeholders - establish a hard timeline with specific deadlines and penalties for missed stuff. Get it on paper, get your due diligence deliverables planned alongside regular work, and move your focus on until it's needed again.