[ryanackley]

I've been through three acquisitions/liquidity events. The second was my own company.

It all depends on what your stock option program says. Both of the times I worked for someone else, all options automatically vested on a liquidity event. A liquidity event being the acquisition of the company. This seems pretty standard so it may be the case for you. I don't want to get your hopes up because it depends on your stock option program

That being said, the first acquisition I went through, the acquiring company purchased the IP and not the company. The board of directors declared that this didn't count as a liquidity event. Therefore, none of our stock options vested . We all still received 6 figure retention bonuses in cash and stock from the acquiring company that vested over so many years.

tldr; It seems pretty standard in the industry that your options would automatically vest on an acquisition. Even if they don't, it's likely that the acquiring company will offer you some kind of bonus to continue working for them.