[jcommin]

Peter - I have been through a few of these. The company that acquires is king, The acquiree follows. Every merger has a playbook created by consultants, accountants or a team created by the acquirer. Upper management teams are put in place and directives are trickled down. Synergies are identified: accounting, IT, payroll, HR and purchasing are typically low hanging fruit. If the company has several locations, real estate is another synergy ( consolidate similar processes, manufacturing, etc) The goal is to shrink the footprint and reduce heads. Reduction of heads is a synergy - the company will look for the ROI calculated from the playbook.

You will also see chnages locally - The acquirer will have their own people in HR, Finance, IT, purchasing and maybe the Plant manger/director - they want their own people. This will happen within 12 months after the acquisition. You will see policy changes, changes in vacation, benefits and possibly a new employee handbook. Some maybe better or worse - it is what it is.

Depending on where you are in the hierarchy, the impact varies. If you are lower on the food chain, you may not see much - certainly the higher, more demands may be placed on you to increase productivity, efficiency which affects profit.

I don't know how old you are but you do have 20 yrs of tenure. You could look for something else but I would not panic - If they chose to eliminate your position, you have a severance and probably access to outplacement services. You got to look at your options.

I'm an old guy whose company got acquired last October. I'm looking at least 1 yr severance if I'm let go. I will retire. Those who are younger than me are in a wait and see mode. And they are looking for options too. The good thing is this isn't 2008 -09.

Be patient and don't rush into any decision cuz you have time.

all the best Peter!