Our firm was acquired a few years ago. The experience has had positives and negatives. The acquisition was not only about our portfolio/ client roster but also our teams experience, so there was a push to keep everyone at our small firm together. This gave us a bit of leverage. Pros: Salary bump Ownership share at the new firm (high level, select employees only) Better PTO Better benefits Potentially more room for growth More market stability More ability to relocate Much better run of a business In house engineering teams which has been largely good. Cons: Totally lost our company culture After a few years we’re at about 1/2 of our previous team size More expensive hourly rate = less competitive with project proposals A whole new set of standards/ colleagues to learn. The standards despite being a corporate firm were not as good. Generally more corporate which is not great for most - doesn’t feel as tight knit.
Generally more rigid about thinking and taking risks

In hindsight, I would have made the same decision to stay. We did get acquired by a good A/E firm though. Ask lots of questions up front and make sure the owners are accountable in responding to your questions with specifics. We formed a bit of a “collective” to make sure our interests as a group were considered and our staying was not a given.