UK Law: Being pushed to sign in acceptance of terms before a negotiation
<p>I am entering a negotiation for the sale of the majority stake in my company. The buyer has sent a 2 page proposal which outlines some terms which they would like to enter negotiations, most of which are fine but there will be a much more rigorous agreement and due diligence will need to be conducted etc.
However, at the end of the proposal letter from the purchaser they state that I must sign to agree to these terms laid out in the letter - personally I'm hesitant to sign anything until the final deal is done. Will signing this hinder further negotiations?</p>

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  <p>Page1&amp;P2: general overview of valuation and some basic terms in non legal speak<br>P3: Signed by the purchasor<br>P4 this is where my worry is:<br>We confirm our acceptance of the terms of the proposal set out in the above letter of which this is a copy.<br>Signed on behalf of the shareholders of <em>the company</em> Limited
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<p>Apologies if I've not been clear or this question has been answered, it's my first pot on this SE website and I didn't really know what to search for.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>This is probably a legally binding contract with consideration being an agreement by each party to enter negotiations.</p>

<p>If you are happy with the terms then sign it, if you aren't then don't. We can't tell you more than this, if you are not comfortable with entering contracts talk to your lawyer - since you are selling a business you surely have one, right?</p>

united-kingdom corporate-law