Who Blew Up Ross Perot's Home Depot Deal?

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal say Bernie Marcus blew up a deal for Ross Perot to put $2 million into Home Depot in return for 70% of the company.

The group met Ross in Dallas and hammered out terms for Perot to fund what would become Home Depot. Bernie and Ross then fought over management style and management philosophy. The sticking point was the old Cadillac Bernie drove, his company car from Handy Dan, which he had managed to keep in the separation. The car was old and not expensive. Bernie treated the Cadillac as practical and in line with Ross's ethos, and held that they should be pragmatists instead of following virtue signaling. Ross held the car as a matter of principle. A second break was control. Ross was treating Bernie like an employee and treating Home Depot like a division of Ross's company. Bernie held that Home Depot was their company and Ross was the financier.

Bernie walked away, and the deal died.