Yael, who testified that she has extensive experience in such transactions, also believed that these negotiations took place over an unusual period of time:
"The court: Oh, ma'am, I'll ask you a question in the meantime. You have a lot of experience in these kinds of deals, right?
A: Yes.
The Court: How much time usually passes between an agreement of principles and the signing of a detailed document?
A: Oh, that's not usually the part
The Court: Still?
A: It's like, it was unusual in terms of the amount of time it took. I mean, oh. It can be uh.
The court: It was unusual.
A: This is in terms of the length of time it took" (see: Minutes of the hearing of July 16, 2023; p. 152, paras. 14-25).
- Yossi testified that from his point of view, the negotiations between the parties were aggressive and fraught with disagreements, as follows:
"... We see that systematically there is a constant expansion of the commercial conditions and there are disagreements, and even my representatives in my affidavit refer to the fact that we cannot continue with this salami method that you actually pass new conditions every time,
- Yes.
- And that the drafts and commercial terms we see that we do not accept their content throughout the negotiations, and this is explicitly recorded in my affidavit in paragraph 12" (see: Minutes of the hearing of February 12, 2024; pp. 49, 9-16).
See also:
"What, because Shufersal is big, you have to put your head down every time in a systematic way, because the negotiations, I have to tell you, were difficult, I have never experienced such a rape of negotiations, and I tell you that Shufersal has to do a home check with itself on its working method" (See: Minutes of the hearing of February 12, 2024; p. 52, paras. 23-25).
- Shlomi, for his part, agreed that during the negotiations, the parties tried to improve their positions even on the commercial issues that had already been ostensibly agreed upon in the framework of the commercial terms document, as follows:
Q: Is it correct to say that during the negotiations between the parties, Shufersal did not consider itself limited to the Principles Document, but also raised various new demands, additional improvements that did not appear?