September 12, 2023

  •  

19:00

  •  

Online

Due Diligence on Acquiring and Being Acquired — Insights from Both Sides

2025

Ukraine

🕵️ What happens behind the scenes of M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) deals? This meetup was an honest conversation with someone who’s been on both sides — as the CTO of an acquired company, and as a leader in companies making acquisitions.

We discussed:

  • The goals behind acquisitions: team, technologies, markets
  • What technical due diligence actually looks like
  • What a CTO needs to prepare before the deal
  • Red flags that can kill a deal
  • What happens to the team post-integration
  • Why retention periods matter

💬 The meetup also explored real-life cases — including the acquisition of Unicheck by Turnitin, experiences with IBM, Goldman Sachs, and the role of marketing in the M&A process.

Meetup speakers

Speaker
Bob Lee

Technology Executive, Business Owner & President @ CMIT Solutions

Bob, a seasoned CTO/CPO, boasts decades of leadership at industry-leading firms including CoPart, IBM, and Goldman Sachs. In his roles, Bob actively participated in acquiring businesses.

Moderator
Yana Mykhailenko

Director of Engineering @ Turnitin

The moderator is Yana Mykhailenko, CTO of Turnitin, an international company that ensures the integrity of education and is a leader in anti-plagiarism solutions. She is a judge and mentor at international competitions and hackathons.

Upcoming events

AI Implementation

Over the May holidays, tech leaders will meet to talk about how they are implementing AI in development and business processes.

May 1, 2025
Sergiy Boryslavskyy

Director of Digital Product Development @ Vodafone Ukraine

Veronika Tamaio Flores

Product Lead @ Railsware,
ex-CTO @ Avocado AI

Conference | How to Become Great CTO

In the last days of May, DEV Challenge, in collaboration with UNIT.City, will bring together Ukraine’s tech leaders, entrepreneurs, company and startup founders, CTOs and managers to discuss the most pressing and essential topics in technology, business, and leadership.

29 May
150 seats
Alex Kovalchuk
Co-founder & CTO @ Cargofy
Yana Mykhailenko
Director of Engineering @ Turnitin
Volodymyr Sveredyuk
CTO @ DEV Challenge