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Stock is worth zero, but good employees will get retention packages to stick around with the new company.

but good employees will get retention packages to stick around with the new company

Maybe. Often acquisitions are just for the customer list. Betfair is located in London (and Dublin for tax purposes IIRC), it has no office in Scotland.

This acquisition was made to bolster their US strategy. CEO of FanDuel is becoming the head of the combined US entity.

What's a realistic retention package for the engineering staff in this case? I'm genuinely curious.

I'm not sure TBH. I've heard that startups and comanies in the UK generally don't offer large stock packages to employees. That could just be anecdata, but that's what I've heard.

A 6-7 figure stock-based retention package would seem normal for the 3 acquisitions I've been through. Vesting length is all over though (short as 1 year, long as 4).

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