In my experience, there's only one rule to surviving an acquisition: find political cover immediately. Upon acquisition, you and your team are an alien entity embedded in BigCo's immune system of political networks and operating rules. They don't know what to do with you, you are a threat to established patterns, and you will lose to the experienced players. So unless you have C-suite cover and a title to match it, you need to find existing, powerful entities with complementary capabilities and a need for what you do. If you make yourself useful as you are, then your patrons have an incentive to not meddle too much with your team. But if you don't have anyone protecting you out of self-interest, eventually you and your people are going to be absorbed, rebuilt and rebranded.
I mean, that'll happen anyway, but at least you have the option of staving it off long enough to get your team safely out of there.
I've been through 3 acquisitions one very badly done, one well done, and one several years in that im still on the fence about. This is great advice in any case.
Even in the case when say one of your side is brought into the c suite it's important to understand that you need to find acceptance and a reason to exist according to the rules of the buyer however bizzare they may be. In the case of my one bad acquisition our ceo came in as cto, but couldn't navigate the nightmare politics of our buyer. We still ended up lacking cover and lost a ton of great people to burnout and political hijinks. Our products suffered. Our customers suffered. It took us too long to understand the rules of the game and that the real interests of the company were at odds with making our products and customers successful. Or at least that was not the primary concern.
It's tough, figuring out the ground rules. Best bet is to make sure you are working in the best interests of someone who does and can guide you through it.
And, remember, they will use you until they don't need you. Just because you're valuable this month, doesn't mean you will be, next month.
If you seem to be performing a lot of knowledge transfer. If you find yourself, a couple of weeks or months in, cut by cut being eliminated from communications and events.
The best way to, personally, survive an acquisition is to be cultivating your options before you ever hear of it, and to be honing them once you do. You might choose to stay. You might be given no choice.
I mean, that'll happen anyway, but at least you have the option of staving it off long enough to get your team safely out of there.