Acquihire is when a company buys a startup for the execution team and bins the product - but you're talking about the product still being valuable to the acquir

Acquihire is when a company buys a startup for the execution team and bins the product - but you're talking about the product still being valuable to the acquiring party. Sounds like an acquisition not acquihire. So I know I need to get out in front of my management team before they make a deal I'll walk away from, but this is new territory for me and I have no idea what would be reasonable to ask for and what would get me laughed out of the room. I'm also confused about this - the terms of the sale will ultimately be negotiated by the founders and the board, I doubt you will be involved. What you will get out of the sale will be based on your vesting schedule - there's no negotiation there you will just be told what has been agreed, and what your vest %age works out as (which could be cash, stock in acquiring party or both). And if the sale amount was low and there were liquidation preferences for the preferred holders, you might get nothing other than a job offer. Which brings me onto the part you can negotiate. The acquiring party will want to meet with you to go over their individual retainment package with you as you join their company. They normally play it as a renegotiated continuation of your vest at the startup. However, If it is an acquihire a key piece of information to try to find out is what your equity package would be if you joined off the street rather than through the acquihire. I've seen examples where the package isn't much better than off the street. You should also go interview at another big company to find out what their offer would be. The reason is you want to try to negotiate a package that reflects both your labor going forward AND the rest of the value of the startup they purchased and so these data points are important to know you are getting a better deal than if you just walked off the street and applied. Honestly, they often are not and so you might be better off working somewhere else than for a dead-end employer like Yahoo etc.