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When Nipun Soni tells us that he spent 5 years at Oracle Corp., during which time he helped to perform due diligence on some 40-plus M&A transactions, we can\u2019t resist asking about the \u201cbig\u201d deals that grabbed business headlines\u2014such as Oracle\u2019s 2009 acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Although Soni no doubt understands our curiosity, he can\u2019t help but tamp down our expectations a bit after we ask: \u201cDo you recall \u2018the visit\u2019 to Sun\u2019s campus?\u201d

His reply? \u201cWith high-profile public company mergers, you actually don\u2019t visit. You try to keep it under the covers. You don\u2019t want people to know about it before it happens.\u201d

Still, our curiosity lingers around \u201cthe visit\u201d because this is when the ice is broken and where finance is frequently represented more than any other functional group within the acquiring company. \xa0\xa0\xa0

Soni is happy to expand: \u201cWell, as soon as the transaction was announced, we were actually at the Sun campuses. We met with Sun\u2019s broader team, their leadership, and we tried to break the ice between the two broader finance teams just by saying: \u2018Hey, welcome to our broad Oracle umbrella. We really look forward to working together and learning about this different business model.\u2019\u201d

However, BillionToOne\u2019s CFO makes it clear that some of the biggest lessons from his 40-plus M&A transactions at Oracle and numerous subsequent other ones that today populate his collective career portfolio often came from deals involving smaller private companies.

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to suddenly find yourself in a position where you inherit a few questionable sales transactions from an acquired company that begin tainting the overall revenue recognition of a company like Oracle,\u201d explains Soni, who adds that the lack of infrastructure within smaller firms often makes such transactions riskier\u2014and all the more interesting. \xa0

"What is it that we should be looking for?,\u201d \u201cHow do we evaluate the synergies between the two companies?,\u201d and \u201cWhat are some of the beyond-the-numbers risks that must be thought through?\u201d asks Soni, as he seeks to better expose the experience he believes helped to propel him upward in his career and ultimately into the CFO office at BillionToOne.\xa0 \xa0- Jack Sweeney