Update 5.6.2013

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to let you know that some controversial discussions between MTBS and vorpX have ended. Here’s the official statement. We would both be very happy if this wouldn’t spawn new discussions.

I know that Neil is very sensitive about the discussions around the portion of sales deal with VorpX because people have been questioning MTBS’ practices and he thinks this comes across badly for MTBS. This was just one of several ideas being discussed, though none of the options we came up with made financial sense. We are still talking and we want great things for VR, our products, and our websites. We both consider the matter closed.

Ralf

I didn’t want to further discuss this issue and I apologize to everyone who isn’t particularly interested in reading stuff like this. But since there is a new thread at MTBS that was commented and then quickly closed by Neil, I would like to add one thing.

I agree with most of what he says, what he forgot to tell was which kind of deal he was offering: he wanted $10 (‘at least’) from each sold copy of vorpX, combined with a multi-year exclusive discount deal for MTBS, that most likely would have had the consequence that most sales would have gone through his site. And that without even being able to supply any meaningful data that could have served as a base for deciding something like this. Not exactly a usual procedure.

Whether such a suggestion looks like a sensible business relationship between a website and a product vendor, everyone might decide for himself. I offered him 10% and one year exclusivity, which is far more than what might be called usual in such cases.

Last thing I’d like to add is that MTBS almost certainly doesn’t have even remotely similar contracts with anyone else. And it’s pretty hard to imagine anyone agreeing to something like this at all.