All of the above, I both work for the company, and have a very small amount of company stock $500 worth in my 401k with that company, that I bought way back when it was cheap. I hadn't ever read about what happens to shareholders choices during or after an LBO and was curious. As for the 401K changing its rules, the company could at any time change what funds or stocks they offer within the plan, and they can force us to sell everything and roll it to new funds, including the company stock I suppose. They have done this before on a smaller scale, changing out whole families of funds by changing our provider, that sort of thing.