Deal Making

The last seven years of my work has been ~40% focused on deal making, and it has become the part of my role I most enjoy.  The negotiation process, analysis with Legal, language crafting and gives/gets process to ultimately finalize a deal is a lot of fun if managed correctly, and I'm looking forward to continue honing my skills to ultimately have it be an area of expertise.

I was in New Orleans for a wedding recently and was looking up the history of New Orleans and how it came to be part of the US.  It's actually a funny story in deal making.

In 1803, France owned New Orleans, having recently acquired it from Spain.  The US owned much of the area north of New Orleans and there was interest within the US gov't to acquire New Orleans which would provide valuable access to the port and gulf.  Thomas Jefferson sent his two main negotiators, James Monroe and Robert Livingston, to Paris to propose an offer to Napoleon to buy New Orleans.  They had ~$10M to work with.

Amazingly, Napoleon offered them New Orleans plus the entire Louisiana Territory for $15M (3 cents per acre), as Napoleon was looking to unload the territory to prep for war with Great Britain.  Although an obvious steal, the US couldn't afford it at the time and had to borrow from two European banks at 6% interest, ultimately costing the US $23M.

Overnight, the US doubled in size as the Louisiana Territory makes up 15 states.  One of the best deals ever and was one of the key steps in the US becoming what it is today.