Perhaps not in title, but no one with serious ambitions is going to give up his business without expectation of high-level clout, unless he's dumping it because he thinks it's a dog. You don't sell off your dream to end up in the middle of some rusty hierarchy.

The weak engineers from acquired companies can't sneak into google. They must go through the typical Google interview process.

I was talking about acq-hiring in general, not Google in particular. Hence the ludicrous names (FatFrog, IUsedThisToilet).

Getting VP-level role at top companies is very hard and if a developer of an acquired company could score a VP-level role elsewhere after the acquisition, he could probably do so before the acquisition.

It's also hard to get acquired. Not many people out there can say that they "completed an exit".

I'm not saying that it's easy to get that kind of job. I'm saying that after one's company is acquired is one of the best times to vie for an external promotion. You can ride the "star" glow, or you can become a Software Engineer 2.B/middle-division. Your choice.