#65 – Make Them Do Their Homework: Elon Musk, Twitter, and the Case for Two-Sided Due Diligence

The most expensive move Elon Musk made buying Twitter wasn't the price. It was three words: "waive due diligence."

This week on S4N, Gene works through the Musk–Twitter saga — which resulted in a multibillion-dollar jury verdict and an SEC settlement — through a negotiation lens and compares it to a similarly catastrophic deal from the 1980s, so that you know what due diligence actually means.

But this episode isn't only about your own homework. There's something most dealmakers get wrong – and it's why you not only want, but need, the other side to do theirs, too. Gene explains why the counterpart who waives the inspection is so often the one who bolts — and why the sophisticated move is to slow them down.

And then the hardest case of all: the gung-ho client who's already decided, who set the clock himself, and who did not hire you to hear "no." You can't argue a person like that out of a bad deal. So what actually moves them?

You've sat in all three seats. This one hands you the moves for each.

Remember: negotiation is life.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Done Deal: Insights from Interviews with the World's Best Negotiators by Michael Benoliel with Linda Cashdan

• The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master by Gichin Funakoshi