I watched that happen from the inside during the "dotcom" bust, Not a startup, but we'd grown to be a public billion dollar revenue organization when we were a

I watched that happen from the inside during the "dotcom" bust, Not a startup, but we'd grown to be a public billion dollar revenue organization when we were acquired by a much larger company (not using names here, as I'm sure there are folks on HN who were also there and would remember this and I don't want to doxx myself). We were very profitable and had an excellent company culture, with almost everyone pulling in the same direction. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had. Until the acquisition. After acquisition, as significant portion of our services were essentially given away to customers buying hardware from the acquirer, and our revenue plummeted. New top management then proceeded to destroy the company culture in an attempt (a guess) to bring it more in line with the acquiring company's culture. It was a disaster, and after a half dozen rounds of layoffs and 3-5 years, the division (that was the original company) was sold off for ~5% of the original purchase price. I'm sure there are situations that make an acquired company better, but that wasn't the case here. And more's the pity.