Here at Channel Mavens Central, we believe language is important.  So, when we see CRN coverage that points out Infor has issued an ultimatum to its channel partners, we want to think about what is meant by an ultimatum.  We are thus reminded of what economists have learned as a result of a set of experiments popularly known as the ultimatum game.  To make the pain bearable, we'll just say that in the game, an amount of money is supposed to be divided between two participants--one proposes the split, while the other must accept or reject it.  If the split is accepted, both parties win, in an economic sense, as something is almost always better than nothing.  If the split is rejected, neither party receives anything, and both parties lose, in an economic sense.  Logically, then, any proposed split, no matter how lopsided, should be acceptable.  However, experimenters have demonstrated that most offers are for something close to a 50-50 split, and lopsided offers are routinely rejected.  Seems the economically rational animal within us can be suppressed to both endure and inflict pain in a situation which seems unfair.  Indeed, other ultimatum game experiments have shown that the brains of people who receive stingy offers become the venue for small-scale cage matches, pitting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (reasoning area) against the bilateral interior insula (anger area).  Seems that the more active the angry part becomes, the more likely the offer is to be rejected.  We wouldn't begin to suggest that Infor's (or any other vendor's) relationship with its channel partners replicates the ultimatum game, but we're thankful for the opportunity to consider how they might be connected.  While we're sure Infor's relationship with its partners will eventually return to its usual rosy state, we have to wonder if the fact that there are no women on Infor's executive management team or on its board of directors might have had something to do with the way this seemingly confrontational behavior developed.   Could there be such a thing as too much testosterone?  We wonder.