[mikeash]

That doesn't make any sense. If the deal falls through in the middle of negotiations, you would never describe that as "at the last minute" even though it turned out to literally be the last minute for that particular deal. That phrase means "right before we would have completed the deal," not "right before we stopped."

[BWStearns]

Sorry, I wasn't intending to say it was correct, only that I think it's the only way to read what he wrote as internally consistent.