The Business Negotiation Podcast with Fexingo: Deals, Contracts, and Closing Conversations

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the true story of how a single document—a one-page term sheet—fundamentally reshaped a $3 billion acquisition in the pharmaceutical industry. They explore why the structure of a deal memo can be more important than the numbers on it, how a poorly written clause nearly killed a merger, and the specific language that saved...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into one of the most counterintuitive strategies in high-stakes dealmaking: giving away something valuable for free. They examine the 2017 licensing negotiation between Nokia and Samsung, where Nokia's willingness to concede a $50 million royalty payment on a key patent set the stage for a billion-dollar cross-licensing agree...

In Episode 55, Lucas and Luna explore the strategic power of silence in negotiation, using a real-world case: how a U.S. pharmaceutical company negotiating a $300 million licensing deal in Japan refused a lowball first offer by simply staying quiet. The Japanese executive, expecting a counterargument, was so unsettled by the silence that he raised his own bid by 20 percent within sixty seconds. Th...

Lucas and Luna dissect a real-world negotiation where the buyer's best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) was deliberately kept weak. They walk through a 2023 airport infrastructure deal worth $300 million and show how the seller turned a bad default scenario into leverage. Key tactics: revealing your own walkaway, naming the cost of deadlock, and framing 'no deal' as the worst outcome...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna dissect the 2023 negotiation between satellite manufacturer Astranis and internet provider OneWeb, where a single concession—agreeing to a lower orbit than originally planned—unlocked a $600 million deal. They explore why concession strategy matters more than the concession itself, the psychology of reciprocation, and how framing...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how a surprising empathy exercise helped rescue a stalled $200 million pharmaceutical partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech during early COVID vaccine negotiations. They break down why mapping the other side's constraints—including their internal stakeholders, regulatory fears, and timeline pressures—can unlock deals tha...

Most negotiators believe you should always make the first offer to anchor the discussion. But what if a deliberately weak opening bid could actually strengthen your position? Lucas and Luna unpack a surprising 2022 Harvard Business School study by Professor Francesca Gino, which found that negotiators who made a lowball first offer and then improved it achieved better outcomes than those who made...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna examine the 2019 merger between Disney and Fox, focusing on a single concession that unlocked a $71 billion deal. They analyze how Disney's willingness to divest Fox's regional sports networks—a concession worth roughly $10 billion—was the linchpin that satisfied antitrust regulators and sealed the acquisition. The conversation br...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect a disastrous 2025 merger that collapsed over a single ambiguous word in the force majeure clause. They walk through the exact language that triggered the dispute, explain why 'including but not limited to' and 'such as' create radically different legal obligations, and reveal how one well-placed comma changed the outcome of a $400 million acquisition in the...

Lucas and Luna dive into the 2025 collapse of a $340 million publishing merger, where a single price anchor — the buyer's first offer — poisoned months of negotiation. They unpack anchoring bias, how a rogue spreadsheet hardened the seller's position, and why experienced negotiators sometimes let one number trap them. Drawing on behavioral economics and a real deal that fell apart six weeks before...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack a powerful negotiation technique: the bracketing question. They walk through how a simple 'help me understand the range you're working with' forced a $12 million gap to collapse in a real estate acquisition. They contrast it with the classic mistake of anchoring too aggressively and losing credibility. The episode also covers how this question works different...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how physical space — specifically, seating arrangements — can determine negotiation outcomes. They dissect a real 2019 case where Renault and Nissan nearly collapsed a $4 billion alliance restructuring until a last-minute switch from adversarial to collaborative seating unlocked the deal. The hosts break down the psycholog...

Lucas and Luna break down a 2025 salary negotiation study that revealed the single concession most likely to tank your future earnings: offering a salary range. They walk through real-world examples from a marketing executive negotiation and a tech hiring freeze, showing why anchoring low on a range costs you tens of thousands more than anchoring high on a single number. Plus, the one phrase to us...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna examine a pivotal moment in the 2014 Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger talks—specifically, how a single strategic question from Comcast's lead negotiator exposed Time Warner Cable's hidden priority: not price, but speed of close. By asking 'What is your ideal timeline to close?', Comcast learned that Time Warner was under pressure...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine the true story of a $1.2 billion acquisition that collapsed because of a single parenthetical clause buried in the letter of intent. They walk through how the buyer's legal team added a seemingly innocuous phrase — '(including all intellectual property)' — that the seller's CEO never noticed until the final due diligence call. That one clause triggered a cas...

In Episode 42 of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack a surprisingly effective negotiation tactic: using a competitor's pricing as leverage without revealing your own numbers. They examine a real case from 2025 where a mid-size Canadian food distributor, Prairie Goods, was locked in tense negotiations with a major US retailer for shelf placement. The retailer demanded Prairie's...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down the surprising power of one specific question that turned a stalled billion-dollar merger into a done deal. They walk through a real case from the pharmaceutical industry, where a mid-sized biotech firm used a simple framing question to break an impasse with a much larger acquirer. The hosts explain why most negotiators...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack the 2019 CBS-Viacom merger — a deal that had failed twice before because of clashing egos and governance disputes. They focus on a single structural trick: how the negotiators created a 'shared goal' via a two-year standstill agreement that forced both sides to focus on integration instead of post-merger power struggles. Lucas explains why traditional win-win...

In episode 39 of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a counterintuitive negotiation tactic: highlighting how a deal's failure hurts both sides equally. Using the 1983 collapse of a $500 million pipeline merger between Allied Pipeline and Trans-Gulf Energy as a case study, Lucas explains how the chief negotiator strategically listed the specific regulatory, financial, and reput...

Lucas and Luna unpack a famous story from the fine-wine world: how a single bottle of 1787 Château Lafite sold for $156,000 at auction in 1985 — far above market value — because of a framing shift. The bottle was originally Jefferson's, but a skeptical buyer walked away when the framer revealed it had been restored. The hosts explore how framing, not price, controls deal outcomes; how to set an an...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect a 2025 tech merger that nearly collapsed over a valuation gap until one side fabricated a regulatory deadline that forced the other to reveal their true walkaway number. They walk through the psychology behind artificial time pressure, why bluffing deadlines works only when the other party believes you have an external constraint, and how one CFO's poker fac...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect a 2023 energy-sector negotiation where a buyer walked out of the signing ceremony over a single indemnity clause. They reveal how the walkout reframed leverage, why the seller conceded two hours later, and the specific language that saved the buyer $47 million in future liability. Plus, Lucas shares the one question you should ask before signing any contract...

Episode 35 of The Business Negotiation Podcast with Fexingo examines why hiring a professional mediator is often the most cost-effective move in high-stakes deal-making. Lucas and Luna unpack the 2025 collapse of a $350 million biotech licensing deal and how a last-minute mediator salvaged a joint venture. They explain why top mediators earn $10,000 per hour, how they break impasse without making...

Episode 34 of The Business Negotiation Podcast explores the most dangerous number a negotiator can reveal: your walkaway point. Lucas and Luna dissect the 2023 collapse of the $11 billion Nielsen-Goldman Sachs management buyout, where a leaked reservation price killed the deal. They contrast it with how the NFL owners' lockout strategy in 2011 used a deliberately ambiguous bottom line to extract m...

In this episode of The Business Negotiation Podcast, Lucas and Luna dissect the story behind the 2024 theatrical release deal for the indie film 'Echoes of the Grid'. When a major streaming service lowballed the producers by offering a $12 million flat fee for global streaming rights, the lead negotiator used a technique called 'deliberate silence' to shift the dynamic. By calmly stating the numbe...