[raganwald]

That isn’t a sale in any reasonable definition of the word, it’s akin to asking, “What if the Death Star was in orbit around the Earth and Darth Vader asked me to sell or witness the destruction of Earth?"

“For Sale” in an unreasonable, extreme circumstance is not on a smooth continuum with $200. You can’t say, Well, if $1,000,000, what about $100,000? What about $10,000? What about $1,000? What about $100? What about $10? What about $1?

Somewhere between $1,000,000 and $1 is a discontiguous gulf that demonstrates the two are entirely different kinds of transactions. If you want to use “For Sale” to indicate everything from Darth Vader to $1,000,000 to $100, you need a new set of words to differentiate $100 from $1,000,000 if we’re going to be able to have any kind of interesting conversation about marketplaces.

[dhimes]

"We've already established what you are, now we're just haggling over the price" -- anecdote punch-line attributed to various people over the years

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/

[raganwald]

Amusing anecdote, but faulty reasoning. I’ll tell the story another way: Would you betray your country if I kidnapped you and your family, rendered you to a secret location in the third world, and tortured your children? You would? Here’s $100, betray your country. We’ve already established that you’re a traitor, we’re simply haggling over terms.

That is clearly ridiculous, the word “traitor” clearly means something a little more than “There exists at least one set of circumstances—no matter how extreme--under which this person would betray their country.”

The expression “This jersey is for sale” means something a little more than “There exists at least one circumstance—no matter how extreme—under which I would sell the jersey.” If it doesn’t, we might as well throw it out of the English language, because it would convey zero bits of information.

When we say “Everything is for sale,” we don’t mean “Because I can kidnap your family or drive an armoured car full of cash to your house,” unless we’re members of the Hutt clan. In the OP, the CEO is discussing how the company being for sale affects everything they do. He doesn’t mean, “We do what we do because someone may kidnap my children,” he means “We do what we do because I’m open to negotiating the sale of this company at any time."

[sltkr]

There is a difference between putting someone under duress and making an offer they can't refuse.

If your wedding ring is not “for sale” for any amount of money, I might still be able to coerce you into “selling” it by putting a gun against your (or your spouse's!) head. But then it wasn't “for sale” in any real sense, because you didn't freely agree to the sale. The same applies to your hostage situation.

However, if you sell your wedding ring for $1,000,000 cash, take it or leave it, then you were willing to sell it, and thus, in my opinion, it was for sale.

Of course there is some grey area (what if you need money to cure a terrible disease?) but that doesn't change the principle: if you'd freely sell something precious for a lot of money, it was for sale. Being offered large amount of money is not, in itself, an extenuating circumstance.

[dhimes]

I agree with you BTW

[moron]

You are bang on with this. Well said.