You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape

and it would seem that a Dutch arbitration panel agrees.

So by now you have heard that Atlas has shrugged once again, and the world has turned SWATCH's way.  And while it is easy to simply accept that it is the Hayeks' world, and we're just living in it, I have to ask - when will enough finally be enough?

Did Tiffany miscalculate on an epic level?  Clearly.  Could things have turned out differently?  No doubt about it.  Was the settlement fair - I suspect so.  Although when talking about sums of money that exceed GDPs, my eyes start to glaze over at the utter waste of it all.  But when I go over the previous reports of this relationship gone bad, I am struck by what really seemed like the inevitability of the outcome.  

There are owners, and there are partners.  And the SWATCH group are owners.  

I don't think that there are any of us who haven't made miscalculations both personally and professionally.  And if I am really "sharing" here, having experienced the less than warm and fuzzy reception of shopping at Tiffany's, it is a wee bit challenging for me to find too much sympathy.  But by the same token, I keep coming back to the same question for both Tiffany and SWATCH - How could you have been expecting any different result?

These types of strategic partnerships seldom work.  Sooner or later, one will win, and the other will… NOT.