On Fri, Sep 16, 2005 at 04:46:32PM -0700, Matt Ghali wrote:
On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, Marshall Eubanks wrote:
Am I the only one who feels that an NDA, even an NDA with a vendor, is an agreement that should be honored ?
I agree as well. It amuses me to no end that this fellow is posting from his work account at "onelegal.com".
Not to mention the fact that his "group effort" would just result in higher prices for everyone. Successful vendors are not stupid, they have managed to grasp a concept that has eluded the networking industry for quite some time: Profit. Yes everyone loves it when their vendor takes them out to dinner, or out for a night on the town, but at the end of the day who do you think pays for it? You do. If you think your vendor is your friend in this industry, your wallet is in for a bad time. Your vendor is your mortal enemy who you just get to act friendly with, nothing more. There is a profit margin which must be maintained, and that means the vendors will excercise the time tested art of maximum extraction and pricing at what the market will bear. Your good deal is funded by someone else's bad deal, where a couple of bottles of wine made them pay $20mil too much. You have to remember, these are not a mass market consumer style products, where a retailer buys at a wholesale price and sells at a retail price. You aren't going to help push prices down by collecting data about who is selling it for the cheapest. Even if you managed to successfully violate every NDA on the planet and show everyone what everyone else is paying, it will not change the bottom line profits which must be made. Every time you see someone who paid more than you did (especially if they are your competitor), you should rejoice, because they just funded your better deal. And if you have any doubt about who has and who hasn't mastered the art of maximum extraction in the name of profit, compare: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=CSCO vs http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=LVLT -- Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)