Deals are Emotional Roller Coasters

Josh McFarland of Greylock Partners reveals how a deal for Twitter to acquire his startup, TellApart, almost fell apart. All appeared to be in order from his perspective, but the social-media giant’s legal team raised some last-minute questions that seemed to put the nearly $500 million deal in jeopardy. As the acquisition went through, the CEO of Twitter at the time, Dick Costolo, texted McFarland: “Every deal dies three deaths.”