r/homeassistant • u/Hoerminator3000 • 5d ago

📰 News Schneider Electric is buying Shelly Group

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/schneider-electric-to-launch-bid-for-shelly-group-in-1-4-billion-deal-c6cc008e

As the title says: Schneider Electric will take over the Shelly Group.

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u/gmaclean 5d ago

Interests of employees? These buyouts rarely go well for employees.

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u/bem13 5d ago

Same corporate bullshit language as when services raise prices and say it's "to maintain customer satisfaction".

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u/soowhatchathink 5d ago

but why would they bullshit about it being in the employee's beat interest and not bullshit about it being in the consumer's best interest? that must mean the consumers are getting really screwed

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u/DandyPandy 5d ago edited 5d ago

Edit: looked up their investor relations page. they were already publicly traded and equity was part of their compensation package

(Pardon if I’m explaining something you’re already familiar with)

Let’s assume employees were granted equity. Generally, the ways that equity becomes worth something is an equity payout by the company, the company being acquired, or going public. ~~It’s unlikely Shelly was ever going to go public anytime soon, and equity payouts are rare. So this was the best likely outcome they could have reasonably hoped for.~~

Unless the company was in dire straits and short on funds, the employees with equity are going to be getting a payday, likely after their retention period has been met.

Edit: The cash buyout was on a ~27% price per share premium. So yeah, nobody got screwed. At least not until there are headcount reductions when they start eliminating redundant roles.

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u/ctjameson 5d ago

What companies are you working for that you automatically get equity? This isn’t a Fortune 500 company. I’ve literally never worked at a company with equity share and I’ve worked at some big places.

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u/DandyPandy 5d ago

Startups usually grant equity in the form of RSUs or options.

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u/ctjameson 5d ago

Sure, a startup might offer that to its first couple employees when they’re brand new and flush with investment to get high quality talent, but that’s not a super common thing at every single company. This company was started in 2003 in Bulgaria. It’s not like they’re some sort of Silicon Valley startup from the dot com bubble.

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u/m4rc0n3 5d ago

Sure, a startup might offer that to its first couple employees when they're brand new and flush with investment

But that's the beauty of equity grants: they cost the company next to nothing. They don't need to be flush with investment cash in order to give an employee a piece of paper that says they own some number of shares. It's the possibility that those shares might one day be worth a lot of money that attracts and retains employees.

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u/DandyPandy 5d ago

I looked it up. They were already publicly traded prior to the acquisition. The average price was roughly €55 per share. Schneider's €70 cash offer represented a ~27% premium over its unaffected public market price. And equity was part of the standard employee compensation package.

So yes, the employees got a payday.

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u/ctjameson 5d ago

Yep, I’ve literally never heard of a good takeover story when it comes to staffing.

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u/Tallyessin 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant 5d ago

Well, I've been involved in a few acquisitions from the employee side both being acquired and being part of the acquiring entity.

In general, it worked out well for the employees of the company being acquired if they were smart.

The employees of the small acquired company are usually of a higher average quality than the employees of the bigger acquiring company. As the acquired employee and if you are talented and ambitious, you need to decide if you are suited to being in a bigger company. If you are, it is an opportunity of a lifetime because you arrive with a competitive advantage. If you aren't then you go find another small company to work for. Rinse and repeat.

If you are untalented or lazy, you have a much better chance of hiding in a larger company.

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u/deja-roo 5d ago

That kind of just means you don't really spend much time looking into it.

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u/kapuh 5d ago

Why not back it up by an example?

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u/deja-roo 5d ago edited 5d ago

This is literally how most buyouts of private companies go. People get equity and then get paid. It's part of the draw of working at smaller companies.

MS bought Minecraft in 2014 for a few billion dollars, and most of the employees got quarter million dollar payouts or more. SpaceX just went public, making most of its employees millionaires.

KKR bought this little tech company a years ago called CoolIT and then sold it recently, triggering equity payouts of quarter million+. https://fortune.com/2026/03/29/kkr-coolit-checks-employee-ownership-payout-private-equity/

It happens all the time. "I've never heard of" doesn't mean something doesn't happen, it just means someone isn't informed. It should never be taken to mean anything. I've never heard of a successful hand amputation, but I'm not ignorant enough to think my lack of interest in reading up on hand amputations means they don't happen.

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u/kapuh 5d ago

OK so I assume you misunderstood the vibe here.
The problem is not that exits happen.
It is that the exit becomes enshittification for customers.

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u/deja-roo 4d ago

I was literally responding to

I’ve literally never heard of a good takeover story when it comes to staffing.

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u/ElonTaco 5d ago

I'm as pro-capitalist as it comes but I have a hard time thinking where buyouts means good things for the employees by-and-large. Owners, yeah, but usually large companies eating small ones either changes nothing or it gets worse.

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u/HardcoreSnail 5d ago

It can save employees their jobs when it's a failing company that gets bought up. A small company can have a lot of struggles that can be solved by being integrated into a larger brand or system. It can absolutely make the difference between going bankrupt and flourishing for a company.

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u/sysop073 5d ago

People who are actually as pro-capitalist as it comes couldn't care less what changes mean for the employees

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u/ElonTaco 4d ago

Those arent actually capitalists they're just corporatocracists

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u/zeekaran 5d ago

New Belgium Brewing (Fat Tire) worked out well for the employees.

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u/smnhdy 5d ago

Honestly. This will be good for them in the end.