[arethuza]

One that thing that can also cause problems is that in many situations the companies lawyers are acting for the company not the individual interests of the founders - if you have investors or a situation where the founders have different equity stakes then it can get messy as a particular deal may favor some people and not others.

I'd also recommend doing a lot research into the acquiring company - particularly if you are being paid in stack rather than cash. I know from bitter experience what happens when you get acquired by a company that looked healthy during the acquisition process then whose stock plummeted during the lock in period :-|