> The only reason you are not sold to the highest bidder was because the ceo got played.

The truth is that the only reason you aren't sold to the highest bidder is that there was no highest bidder interested in buying. Just people motivated enough to do the courting rituals required to get a peek beneath the sheets.

I fucking wish some of the companies I've been at sold to the highest bidder when they had the chance.

Exits are better than layoffs.

There is always a non insignificant chance that exits will be followed by layoffs

True, but layoff + severance < layoff + severance + liquidity event

How about cases where due to liquidity preferences, no one but founders get money at the liquidity event? A small exit is often 0 for employees.

then you worked at a bad company with a bad outlook and should have been prepping to leave anyway?

I think it's a company culture thing. I mean, I could have kept it buried and just hope nobody at the company found out but that's not how we roll. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Why? Do you have previous experience selling a company? If you were in his place, what would you have done differently to avoid being "played"?