Negotiation Columns & Blogs

CBS is reportedly negotiating to bring Ashton Kutcher back to the hit television show, Two and a Half Men.  CBS is taking the lead in the negotiation even though Warner Bros. owns and produces the show.  Why?  CBS’s licensing fee includes the cost of the show, which...

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking service, is buying Instagram for around $1 billion in cash and stock.  Instagram is the most popular free photo-sharing application on Apple’s App Store and has over 30 million users. An interesting aspect of this deal...

Nearly 30,000 Chicago public school teachers and support staff went on strike this week after the city and teachers’ union failed to reach a new labor agreement. Why did they strike? The teachers’ union identified their BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated...

As a follow up to our last blog post in which we evaluated the BATNAs (best alternatives to a negotiated agreement), or Plan Bs, for the City of Chicago and their striking teachers, let’s take a look at another great example – the ongoing NFL referee lockout. The...

Here are links to ExpertNegotiator’s most popular negotiation “Top Ten” lists: 1.  Top Ten Impasse-Breaking Strategies 2.  Top Ten Information-Gathering Tactics 3.  Ten Tips for Negotiating Your Next New Car Purchase 4.  Top Ten Tips for Optimizing Your...

On October 27th, All-Star basketball player James Harden was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets. Harden was one of the core players who led the Thunder to the NBA finals last year. The trade came about after Harden rejected a four-year, $54...

My first Negotiation Golden Rule is “Information is Power:  So Get It!”  This maxim was taken to a new and untoward level by computer hackers in the Coca-Cola Company’s failed attempt to buy the China Huiyuan Juice Group in 2008. According to The New York Times: As...

Over the weekend, a bailout was announced for Cyprus in which the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund agreed to give €10 billion to the Mediterranean island and, in exchange, Cyprus would raise €5.8 billion by imposing a tax on depositors in Cypriot banks....

New research from Professor Shirli Kopelman finds "first movers paradoxically feel less satisfied" with their results despite empirical evidence that, in price negotiations, making the first offer often leads to better results. To temper this unhappiness, Kopelman...

The headline, People Do Business With People They Like, on Forbes.com recently reminded me that building rapport is also very important when negotiating. In his book, Influence: Science and Practice, psychologist Robert Cialdini calls this phenomena the Liking Rule...

One way we use to decide how to behave in a given situation is to observe how others are behaving. Put another way, we take the actions of those around us into account when determining our own actions. This is the Principle of Social Proof and it's especially powerful...

Chelsea, an English Premier League soccer team, has made two offers to competitor Manchester United to acquire the services of striker Wayne Rooney. The first was for about £20 million and the second for over £25 million. Manchester United rejected both. Chelsea has...

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, in a letter sent to lawmakers, warned the federal government will run out of money to pay its bills on Oct. 17th at the latest. What is the impact of this impending deadline on the debt ceiling and government funding...