GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - I need to vent --- about a fucked up deal

CXA · 05-23-2008, 07:23 PM

Five weeks ago today, I was contacted by a guy --- let's call him Larry --- from one of the BIG BOYS of the porn world. Everyone of you reading this would recognize the company name.

They wanted to buy my site and hire me to help them build their own version of the site. In fact, they had contacted me looking to buy my site 3 months earlier in Vegas.

While this company is HUGE in the porn world, they are total unknowns in the escort world which is my specialty.

Everything was going fine. We were in total agreement about just about every aspect of the deal ... until we started talking about the money. Larry and I went back and forth and we got closer and closer. We spoke just about every day for anywhere from 30 min to two hours.

When Larry first contacted me I was working on some deals that got started at the Phoenix Forum. The deal with Larry was moving along so smoothly that I told Larry that I was shelving those other deals in favor of the one with him --- BIG MISTAKE.

Then he introduces me to one of his partners in the deal --- lets call him Moe. Moe was a bit of a dick but we were able to find common ground on a few key areas. I caught him in a couple of lies regarding not-too-important things and that should have set off the alarm bells. But, I wanted the deal to go through so I didn't make any fuss about the lies.

The biggest mistake I made was to express my desire to wrap this up quickly because I could use the money for another project I'm working on. I knew that telling them about this would weaken my negotiating posture but it was honest and I thought I was dealing with someone with some integrity. Another mistake.

Larry and Moe had a third partner. The boss. The money-guy in the organization. We'll call him The Big Cheese. I had heard many stories about Cheese. He has a pretty good reputation -- or so I've heard.

All along Larry kept promising me that he knew Cheese for 20 years and that all we needed was to work out the deal between us and that Moe & Cheese go along with his recommendation. That turned out to me The Mother of all Lies in this little drama.

The deal is getting worse and worse for me every time I talk to them. We finally arrived at a deal I wasn't particularly thrilled with, but it was a door-opener with Cheese's company. So we all get on a conference call. Moe, Larry, Cheese --- and me. Then Moe cuts loose with 'revised deal' that was LESS THAN HALF of what I thought we were already agreed.

While Moe is butt-fucking me without any lube, Larry is being the biggest weasel. It was like the 20+ hours of negotiation and discussion never happened. He was lying through his teeth about promises and statements he had made.

Every step along the way I documented every assertion I made regarding traffic, revenues, SEO, etc. However no one could explain to me how they arrived at this INSULTING offer. Moe tried throwing some BS at me but I had done my homework and his partial answer made no sense whatsoever.

By their own admission, Moe and Larry had not given Cheese much of the details. They only had given him the briefest summary and I suspect that even that was a distorted version of the real deal. Cheese gives me some story about how the "finance department" had come up with the numbers. Yeah .. And I believe in Santa Clause, too.

LET ME BE CLEAR ABOUT SOMETHING: I'm not upset because a deal fell apart. Deals fall apart all the time. What I AM PISSED ABOUT is that these guys wasted 5 weeks of my life -- time I could have spent pursuing the other options I had. They all lied to me. They took what should have been a medium-sized "bargaining chip" that a business man -- with scruples -- could use to get a few extra percentage points in his favor and blew it up to a sledge-hammer to try to low-ball me.

HAPPY FOOT-NOTE When the final nail was hammered into the deal today, I reached out to a couple of competitors of the Three Stooges. One of them is interested in the deal on it's own merits and if we give the Stooges a major dose of competition than that's icing on the cake.

Thanx for reading this. I feel better already just having written it.

05-23-2008, 07:23 PM
CXA Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: South Florida Posts: 211	I need to vent --- about a fucked up deal Five weeks ago today, I was contacted by a guy --- let's call him Larry --- from one of the BIG BOYS of the porn world. Everyone of you reading this would recognize the company name. They wanted to buy my site and hire me to help them build their own version of the site. In fact, they had contacted me looking to buy my site 3 months earlier in Vegas. While this company is HUGE in the porn world, they are total unknowns in the escort world which is my specialty. Everything was going fine. We were in total agreement about just about every aspect of the deal ... until we started talking about the money. Larry and I went back and forth and we got closer and closer. We spoke just about every day for anywhere from 30 min to two hours. When Larry first contacted me I was working on some deals that got started at the Phoenix Forum. The deal with Larry was moving along so smoothly that I told Larry that I was shelving those other deals in favor of the one with him --- BIG MISTAKE. Then he introduces me to one of his partners in the deal --- lets call him Moe. Moe was a bit of a dick but we were able to find common ground on a few key areas. I caught him in a couple of lies regarding not-too-important things and that should have set off the alarm bells. But, I wanted the deal to go through so I didn't make any fuss about the lies. The biggest mistake I made was to express my desire to wrap this up quickly because I could use the money for another project I'm working on. I knew that telling them about this would weaken my negotiating posture but it was honest and I thought I was dealing with someone with some integrity. Another mistake. Larry and Moe had a third partner. The boss. The money-guy in the organization. We'll call him The Big Cheese. I had heard many stories about Cheese. He has a pretty good reputation -- or so I've heard. All along Larry kept promising me that he knew Cheese for 20 years and that all we needed was to work out the deal between us and that Moe & Cheese go along with his recommendation. That turned out to me The Mother of all Lies in this little drama. The deal is getting worse and worse for me every time I talk to them. We finally arrived at a deal I wasn't particularly thrilled with, but it was a door-opener with Cheese's company. So we all get on a conference call. Moe, Larry, Cheese --- and me. Then Moe cuts loose with 'revised deal' that was LESS THAN HALF of what I thought we were already agreed. While Moe is butt-fucking me without any lube, Larry is being the biggest weasel. It was like the 20+ hours of negotiation and discussion never happened. He was lying through his teeth about promises and statements he had made. Every step along the way I documented every assertion I made regarding traffic, revenues, SEO, etc. However no one could explain to me how they arrived at this INSULTING offer. Moe tried throwing some BS at me but I had done my homework and his partial answer made no sense whatsoever. By their own admission, Moe and Larry had not given Cheese much of the details. They only had given him the briefest summary and I suspect that even that was a distorted version of the real deal. Cheese gives me some story about how the "finance department" had come up with the numbers. Yeah .. And I believe in Santa Clause, too. LET ME BE CLEAR ABOUT SOMETHING: I'm not upset because a deal fell apart. Deals fall apart all the time. What I AM PISSED ABOUT is that these guys wasted 5 weeks of my life -- time I could have spent pursuing the other options I had. They all lied to me. They took what should have been a medium-sized "bargaining chip" that a business man -- with scruples -- could use to get a few extra percentage points in his favor and blew it up to a sledge-hammer to try to low-ball me. HAPPY FOOT-NOTE When the final nail was hammered into the deal today, I reached out to a couple of competitors of the Three Stooges. One of them is interested in the deal on it's own merits and if we give the Stooges a major dose of competition than that's icing on the cake. Thanx for reading this. I feel better already just having written it.