One “gotcha” are retention agreements. Last company I was at that was acquired there were lucrative retention offers after 2 years to most engineers. In additi

One “gotcha” are retention agreements. Last company I was at that was acquired there were lucrative retention offers after 2 years to most engineers. In addition to the (very generous) retention bonus, It seemed various options were paid out slowly over the first few years of acquisition. People did pretty well (in the $100ks range). But it did see the company pretty much decided to pay out the employees “equity” on its own schedule. I think depending on the vehicle used to own “equity” the acquired company has a lot of flexibility when negotiating with the acquiring company in terms of payment schedules, etc so people don’t all suddenly quit the day after acquisition.