a company gets bought out or merges with another company?
The company I work for is performing great that is why it is a takeover target. They can avoid it by merging with another company and making the price tag bigger for possible takeover. They are in negotiations with another company for a merger deal also.
Anybody who buys this company would not try to trim it down because it is not underperforming but it is doing great.
How likely are layoffs and cutbacks in this kind of situation?
Should I start looking for another job, if I do not want to face the stress of wait and see if they would decide to keep my position intact?
That is a tricky situation. Our plant was part of a giant corporation, but the wanted to sell us as we were comparatively smaller part of their business. Long story short, though the new owners like to see us being more profitable, but they dont want to eliminate any positions, one reason being that we are pretty balanced (not lean though) organization to begin with. Second reason is that they are going to treat us as a stand alone company and would not interfere in our day to day business.
In your situation, try to find out how the new owners will treat you guys: as an independent business or part of a bigger business? Also what is their history/pattern during previous acquisitions? Also find out if your current owners have a contract with your future owners about not elimination any position for one year. See, you are part of the asset that your current company is selling. New owners will look at all the work force as an asset and usually, unless there are redundant positions, would not eliminate you. To be honest, not everyone is like Microsoft who took over Nokia and then went after 12,500 jobs, most of which were ex-nokians.
To be honest, some degree of lay offs are expected in a change situation but they are mostly for the C players in the teams .. And not an actively layoff policy is followed , they do wait it out for things to settle down first and then make annual strategy plans. This takes months and gives enough time to the employees to see if the new management is a hassle for them or they can carry on working with them.
I survived similar changes about 4 times in my career. The biggest thing for me was to always see through if I could work with the new management. In one of the companies in which I couldnt survive the change and had to resign was the time when I just couldnt get along with the new management and their expectations. It was a rough deal .
In a nutshell, keep your eyes and ears on the new management , if you are a well performing A or B player in your company , you will find the ball in your court , in the given situation, to decide whether you like the changes or not. If not , then you will still have ample opportunity to find another job.
Though if I were you, I would get in touch with selected headhunters and tell them to keep you informed of opportunities. In such cases you are not an active job seeker, but you will know what is going on in the market and if a really good opportunity comes along , you dont have to wait it out to see the fate of the current company.
Now look for another job and see if their sign on bonus is more than the retention bonus. Not that you leave for sure if thats the case, but who knows..maybe there are things out there you are not seeing because you are not scanning
job market is pretty good in segments..maybe take a step back and think whether this is where you want to be or are their better things out there. Growth, opportunity, Position...or a growth sector within your industry.
Now look for another job and see if their sign on bonus is more than the retention bonus. Not that you leave for sure if thats the case, but who knows..maybe there are things out there you are not seeing because you are not scanning
job market is pretty good in segments..maybe take a step back and think whether this is where you want to be or are their better things out there. Growth, opportunity, Position...or a growth sector within your industry.
Thanks for reinforcing my resolve to look for the next big thing. Now I have a year to do do so. I do not have to rush for it.
Don't you guys think it will depend on the field? Things move pretty fast in the High Tech field, compared to say Utilities/oil industry.
If you are in a location where there are ample opportunities in your field, there is no harm in waiting a little longer. See if you can position yourself better before this merger and subsequent takeover. I mean, a retention bonus is good, but if there is a way for you to 'move up' before the merger and takeover takes place, when it is done, you will find yourself mapped to a better position and this retention bonus will look trivial. You might very well like the place after the takeover, in which case, an engineered promotion will not be so bad.