In a warm tribute to Mr. Weill, a prospective competitor, Martin S. Davis, chairman of Gulf and Western Industries remarked: "Sandy's one of the best executives, and they're lucky to have him.
'Agreements of this nature, whereby a carrier operating in a particular territory obtains from a prospective competitor an undertaking, express or implied, not to attempt competitive operations, are likely to tend to impede the development of competition to the extent required by the present and future needs of the nation.
Friendster-founder Jonathan Abram's long-awaited Socializr is a prospective competitor (but still yet to publicly launch).
Incensed, Thorkildsen drew a pistol, forced his prospective competitor to pull his stakes out of the ground and warned him never to return.
"If I had to choose one thing about the brand which is the most valuable, hardest to for a prospective competitor to steal, it is the supply chain," explained Funk.
For biologics, any prospective competitor to a brand-name product would have to go through the same lengthy and expensive approval process and clinical trials as the original manufacturer.
In 1957, the Swiss Air Force performed an extensive evaluation of several aircraft for a prospective purchase; competitors included the North American F-86 Sabre, the Folland Gnat, and the Hawker Hunter; a pair of Hunters were loaned to the Swiss for further trials and testing.
Such fears are hardly unwarranted, since many prospective partners are competitors in some business arenas to begin with.
