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Comment by anon345345 | Hacker News Reader

(anon to protect the innocents)

I have been through the exact same scenario: acquisition, take it or leave it offer of employement to join the employer.

You know what? Go to your boss, in a non-confrontational way, tell them that you are underpaid, the market (meaning other companies) are making you offers left and right at much higher salary. It's not you who is greedy, it's the market telling you what you are worth. Then say you very much want to stay.

The deadline they give you about signing the original offer? Let it expire. Until you do that, they don't take you seriously. You're just a whiny engineer. Once their deadline is gone, see who calls first. They will call you in a panic and find out what it is you want (you already told them by the way). Then they'll move real fast to make a counter-offer that is at least half-decent. Done.

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It's good if you also have an offer from a competitor. Then there's no theoretical game to play ("the market price is your highest offer, which is currently ours") and you win by doing nothing.

> The deadline they give you about signing the original offer? Let it expire. Until you do that, they don't take you seriously. You're just a whiny engineer. Once their deadline is gone, see who calls first.

This is the sound of me kicking myself.

Helps if you all do it together, eg, a union.

Some of us pride ourselves on not sinking to the lowest common denominator (i.e. breeding grounds for mediocrity).

I'd imagine that the power imbalance of corporation vs employee creates a "lowest common denominator" situation more often than corporation vs union.

I think I'm missing something. Why will they call you in a panic?

They just spent <insert large sum of money> to buy the company you work for. EVERY acquisition, at some level, is a talent acquisition. They're buying not just the IP, but the people who made that happen. They need to have everyone who knows how to contribute on board. There is no point in your career that you will have more leverage than on the day a company you work for is acquired.

Which is why they put out these silly "take it or leave it" offers. They're trying to pressure you into giving up that leverage. When you call their bluff, you'll find you have a really nice negotiating position.

There are exceptions of course. Failed company acquisitions for instance generally don't leave you a ton of negotiating room (although even then it's not zero).

So in short they're going to call in a panic because they need you much more than you need them.

Thanks for the detailed perspective. I've never been a part of an acquisition and I wasn't thinking about it that way.

It's not easy to replace talented people.

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