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I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

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Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#41

Post by mhb »

ethbr0 wrote: post #9
lordnacho wrote: post #6

Integrity matters. Even if he hadn't gotten a big offer later on, he could still walk away with that. Yes, you can argue that he could have just kept his mouth shut and still honestly taken the Yahoo deal, but he said what he thought was right and gave Yahoo some good judgement about pg's team. I recently interviewed with a number of firms, and the ones that give off the best impression are the ones who ask to integr…

Makes you wonder if behind the scenes, someone at Microsoft checked with someone at Yahoo and heard the story, and then Microsoft did the deal.

If that were true, they wouldn't have paid more than Yahoo offered.

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#43

Post by torstenvl »

coldtea wrote: post #28
Miner49er wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's honesty, not integrity.

You'd be surprised. Dictionary to the rescue: "Integrity: 1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles."

Your response is (intentionally?) incomplete. Talking about integrity...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity

Definition of integrity

1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY

2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS

3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#44

Post by admissionsguy »

brk wrote: post #7

In sales there is a term "know when to stop selling", this story is kind of a variant of that. If you have acceptable terms worked out, stop "selling", stop trying to show or add more value to the deal. Close the deal you have, and then work on any new or additional things.

It’s something I’ve been always struggling to accept. Be it sales, academic debates, court cases, or just dinner table conversations. Why does the outcome depend on the timing and specific choice of words used? Isn’t it a proof or irrationality of it all? Shouldn’t the outcome converge to the "best" one (optimal, true) the longer the process takes?

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#46

Post by crate_barre »

FinanceAnon wrote: post #8

Is this the same guy who recently posted about trying to bluff Steve Jobs, getting called out on it and losing a deal? I wonder how many more stories like these he has lol Edit: found the link for those interested https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826437

The mistake was he tried negotiating with Jobs himself lol. I dunno, getting 50m in Apple stock would have been fine if the buyout had to be 50m. The deal would have been way more than 3x by now. Bravado at work here. Yes, this man has the same problem I suffer from (not in selling myself, I’m pretty good about shutting the fuck up in that regard), but in general, this gentleman suffers from ‘can not shut the fuck up’. I can commiserate.

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#47

Post by lnxg33k1 »

FinanceAnon wrote: post #8

Is this the same guy who recently posted about trying to bluff Steve Jobs, getting called out on it and losing a deal? I wonder how many more stories like these he has lol Edit: found the link for those interested https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826437

Yeah now he's starting to give me pinky and the brain vibes, like always getting so close and then fucking up ;o

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#49

Post by vsareto »

crate_barre wrote: post #36
vsareto wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He compared engineers he's worked with to engineers he hasn't worked with (Viaweb) and said they were better. How did he know they were better? Is he just better at assessing engineering talent than the rest of us? You're assuming he knew they were better. Based on all of us (esp. here) not trusting technical interviews to determine engineer quality, I suspect he did not know they were better and was simply trying an…

Dude he didn’t literally mean they were better. He gave a sincere compliment to Viaweb (an exaggerated one) as a compelling counterpoint to shift the other’s view. I dunno, the Yahoo guy seemed a little sociopathic for doing this. Reminds me of when Paul McCartney told Michael Jackson he wanted to buy The Beetles catalog, only to have MJ go ahead and buy it instead. Douchey to say the least.

>I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

>“They are hands down better than us."

Uh, I'm pretty sure he meant what he said, with the second being a solid assertion. He didn't dance around it, he literally meant they were better.

Re: I once killed a $125M deal by being “too honest”

#50

Post by ProjectArcturis »

admissionsguy wrote: post #44
brk wrote: post #7

In sales there is a term "know when to stop selling", this story is kind of a variant of that. If you have acceptable terms worked out, stop "selling", stop trying to show or add more value to the deal. Close the deal you have, and then work on any new or additional things.

It’s something I’ve been always struggling to accept. Be it sales, academic debates, court cases, or just dinner table conversations. Why does the outcome depend on the timing and specific choice of words used? Isn’t it a proof or irrationality of it all? Shouldn’t the outcome converge to the "best" one (optimal, true) the longer the process takes?

Yes, of course it's irrational. People are not machinelike optimizers of information accuracy. If that's your mental model of people, you're going to have a bad time.
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