Couple refuses business partner’s demand to give his wife equal shares and ownership after she originally mocked the business, offering a buyout instead: ‘We could have forced him out’

• AITAH for offering a buyout to my business partner when he wanted to readjust the shares to bring in his wife?

  
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  Three business partners reviewing paperwork

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  Coworkers discussing paperwork

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• So one-third of this company needed money at startup, got help from the other two. They put in extra cash, they take on extra risk, they build something successful together. Years later that same friend wants to rewrite the deal because his wife keeps pressuring him. She said she would make a hundred times more doing her own thing. That did not happen. Now she wants in on the success she called stupid.

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• Equal shares among three people means the two people living together hold majority by default. They invested more money, they took more risk, they deserve the majority position. And also, here comes a sentence I never imagined I would ever write: that's the beauty of contracts. That’s what you signed. That's what you get.

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• Trying to force a fourth partner into equal shares when the original three already split the pie is like showing up late to a pizza party and demanding everyone un-eat the slices so you get the same portion.

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• The wife declined to invest, mocked them, and now wants equal partnership after years of failed job hunting. She sees the business as a safety net for her unemployment problem. Her husband seems to see it as leverage to fix marriage issues. And neither of them sees the actual problem: you can not buy into a company that does not want you as a partner. Remember the beauty of contracts?

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• The fact they’re even offering a buyout instead of forcing him out is the generous move. The bylaws could have been exploited to push the friend aside entirely. Two against one means two wins every time. Choosing to pay him out rather than crush him shows restraint. 

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• Friendship and money mix like oil and water. You can shake them together for a while, but they always separate eventually. 

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