I've been in this situation (acquisition 2, below). You will eventually move on to another small company.
Acquisition 1: This was a quite insane dotcom acquisition. The VP Marketing loved us and bought us. The VP Engineering hated us, and dumped all our software first chance she got. Oh, by the way, those two VPs were married to each other.
Acquisition 2: Much smoother. I stayed around for a few years, enjoying coasting after the intensity of the startup. I continued to tinker on the product, and add incremental improvements, but the days of innovation were over. I also enjoyed the huge money they threw at us (raises, bonuses) to keep people around. They really needed to do that because interesting work ceased, and the amount of stupid process and politics was off the charts. (Example: they issued us windows laptops. We promptly wiped them and installed Linux. If service was required, we would have to reinstall windows, get the laptop repaired, and then again wipe and install windows.) I eventually left for another startup.
Acquisition 1: This was a quite insane dotcom acquisition. The VP Marketing loved us and bought us. The VP Engineering hated us, and dumped all our software first chance she got. Oh, by the way, those two VPs were married to each other.
Acquisition 2: Much smoother. I stayed around for a few years, enjoying coasting after the intensity of the startup. I continued to tinker on the product, and add incremental improvements, but the days of innovation were over. I also enjoyed the huge money they threw at us (raises, bonuses) to keep people around. They really needed to do that because interesting work ceased, and the amount of stupid process and politics was off the charts. (Example: they issued us windows laptops. We promptly wiped them and installed Linux. If service was required, we would have to reinstall windows, get the laptop repaired, and then again wipe and install windows.) I eventually left for another startup.