at the outset, Thank You !, for publishing these excellent posts. Today, April 23, 2011, is my first visit to your website. I will be coming here more often and referring my good friends too.

I completely agree with you about negotiating being a zero sum game and can validate it from a recent experience of mine. In Nov 2010 I was applying for a new internal position. I had the strongest recommendations for the new position. Towards the end of the interview, I tried to negotiate. Sure enough I was not the sucessful candidate. On hindsight, despite having the strongest recommendations, I think negotiating is what did me in.

I wish I had read your post earlier. However late is better than never. Live and Learn – right.

Thank you again,

I'm not ignoring you, but I don't want to comment on something that I'm not sure I fully understand. My fear is that due to our language barrier I may misinterpret something and not respond properly. If you want to send me a more detailed email, or call me, I'd certainly be willing to try and weigh-in with some thoughts. Thanks Sami.

Excellent point which means we must be clear whether we are Deal Breaker or deal maker in M&A.
we had the ability to reject all of the licensing deals that were already in place.
They’re smart enough to know that IP is absolutely a deal killer when it comes to disagreements and bankruptcy increase the value.
The greatest value can be realized by taking them down market.
Our disruption protect them from trolls.

If I got it wrong then please correct me.

When the other side profit from their strong money position by playing the delay tactic and they are sure that we can't sue them.

I lose that negotiation?

It's been my experience that you cannot lose a negotiation you don't become a party to. When a one sided negotiation is taking place the other party cannot prevail as they are simply negotiating against themselves. Don't get sucked into the flawed logic that negotiation is a tool for the powerful. I have on more than a few occasions participated in resolving labor disputes with unions – I have always been successful in these endeavors, yet I have never negotiated as part of the process. This is more than a semantical debate – it requires a fundamental paradigm shift in thinking. I hope these thoughts help John…

Thanks for your comment. While I appreciate your position, closing a positional gap can easily turn into an interest based struggle the minute the “discussion” turns into a “negotiation.” What sounds great in theory is often not the case in reality.

Based upon decades of experience, the bottom line for me is this…I know how it feels when someone is “negotiating” with me vs. how it feels when someone is having a “discussion” with me. They are not one in the same, and the latter is definitely preferable over the former.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one Jason…Best wishes for continued success Sir.