greenmail

[green-meyl] /ˈgrinˌmeɪl/
noun, Stock Exchange.
1.
the practice of buying a large block of a company's stock in order to force a rise in stock prices or an offer by the company to repurchase that block of stock at an inflated price to thwart a possible takeover bid.
Origin
green (in sense “money”) + (black)mail
Related forms
greenmailer, noun
Examples from the web for greenmail
  • greenmail is when a target repurchases shares from a real or potential hostile bidder at a premium price.
British Dictionary definitions for greenmail

greenmail

/ˈɡriːnˌmeɪl/
noun
1.
(esp in the US) the practice of a company buying sufficient shares in another company to threaten takeover and making a quick profit as a result of the threatened company buying back its shares at a higher price
Word Origin
C20: a blend of green (sense 8) orgreenback (sense 2) + blackmail
Slang definitions & phrases for greenmail

greenmail

noun

The buying, at a premium price, of the stock holdings of someone who is threatening to take over a company, in order to induce the person to cease the attempt: The most cited recent case of greenmail occurred this spring and summer as Walt Disney Productions fought to escape a takeover/ But Wall Street analysts agreed that CBS was unlikely to consider such action, since it amounts to ''greenmail''

[1983+; modeled on blackmail]