* For over twenty-five years, at Ford and in private practice, Mr. Fenstermaker has participated in the negotiation and structuring of a variety of international transactions, including joint ventures. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Mr. Fenstermaker and not necessarily those of Ford Motor Company.

1. Even the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has jumped on the JV-marriage-analogy bandwagon with a study with the unusual title: IFC Discussion Paper Number 29, International Joint Ventures in Developing Countries: Happy Marriages? Statistics for 1970-95, available at the IFC website: http://www.ifc.org/publications. The IFC Paper is particularly interesting in that the writers interviewed executives of almost 70 JVs in six developing countries.

2. Detailed statistics are difficult to find. For support of the "considerably-in-excess of-50%" statement, I am relying on personal observation and the following: Ehrenhaft, International Joint Ventures: Setting Them Up, Taking Them Apart, C563 ALI-ABA 417, 419 (1990); Inkpen and Beamish, Knowledge, Bargaining Power, and the Instability of International Joint Ventures, Academy of Management Review, 177 (January 1997); Park and Ungson, The Effect of National Culture, Organizational Complementarity, and Economic Motivation on Joint Venture Dissolution, Academy of Management Journal, 279 (April 1997); and Ross and Eichmann, Partnership & Joint Venture Agreements: Cross-Border Joint Ventures, § 8A.05 (PLI Comm. Law & Practice Course Handbook 1998). Bleeke and Ernst, Is Your Strategic Alliance Really a Sale?, Harv. Bus. Rev. 97 (Jan/Feb. 1995) state: "The median life span for alliances is seven years, and nearly 80% of joint ventures [undefined] end in a sale by one of the partners." One would think that, with the passage of even more time and with recent JVs being more and more often established in extremely unstable business climates, the future JV breakup rate will be even higher than past studies indicate.

3. See, e.g., Inkpen & Beamish, supra, who argue, "The primary factor contributing to instability, and a factor that can be controlled by firms in [international] JVs, is a shift in partner bargaining power associated with the acquisition of knowledge and skills that allows a firm to eliminate a partner dependency". Ehrenhaft, supra, at 433, 434 lists a number of "more usual" causes, summarized as follows: 1. JV Party develops new objectives; 2. Market changes; 3. JV Party competition with the JV; 4. Shift in internal organization of JV Party; and 5. Differing views on disposition of JVCO earnings.

4. For a sobering summary of JV breakups in India and the various reasons for the breakups, see Thiagarajan, India Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances – Happy Marriages that End in Ugly Divorces, Business Line (the Hindu-India) 7 (December 22, 1996).

5. For a sample JVA provision providing for liquidation of JVCO in the event of termination of the JVA, see Mudge, International Joint Ventures: Drafting the Agreements, in 765 PLI Comm 21 (March 1998). The same article provides an example of a JVA buyout provision at a roulette price.

6. For a case study of the negotiation and implementation of a JV breakup, see Fenstermaker, What’s Love Got to Do with It? (The Breakup of Joint Ventures—An Autopsy of Autolatina) 6 Latin American Law & Business Report 17 (No. 16 October 1998).