Rebadging is where Company A sells part of its business (for example software delivery) to Company B for a hefty sum and some guarantee Company A will continue business for some time with Company B.
Under this arrangement Company A avoids severance pay by requiring that Company B offers displaced workers a job with Company B.
This gets company A paid for worker displacement when ordinarily they would have to pay to displace those workers.
Company A also continues to have access to those workers and their skills through Company B.
If under this scenario Company A desires to behave in this manner, a manner with no honor or respect for those that built and maintained said company.
The obvious thing to do for anyone impacted is, develop amnesia when it comes to how Company A’s systems even work. If you no longer remember how Company A’s systems work when you resume employment at Company B. Company A will have to pay a lions ransom to Company B in perpetuity to make changes to Company A’s systems. The initial pay Company A receives from Company B for the sale will be eaten away in billable’s in short order eroding any financial gains from selling off their employees like cattle.
This operating procedure is especially impactful if Company A has no internal documentation surrounding how it’s systems work.
TLDR:
If you find yourself being rebadged in 2026, it’s best to forget everything you know about your former companies systems. Let them provide documentation for you if there is no documentation spin your wheels churning out bug riddled AI slop ad nauseam, and lining your new companies pockets with all the billable hours for your bug infested code delivery.