Another example of the growing trend of buying out key parts of a company to avoid any actual acquisition?

I wonder if equity holding employees get anything from the deal or indeed if all the investors will be seeing a return from this?

I have a friend who worked in a company that got "not acquired" in a similar deal.

She didn't see a dime out of it, and was let off (together with a big chunk of people) within 6 months.

I wonder if such deals will create employee lawsuits. I'd certainly be looking at legal options if I was one of the founding employees.