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The Collaborative International Dictionary
greenmail

greenmail \green"mail\ n. (Finance) The act, performed by a publicly traded corporation, of paying a corporate raider to give up a takeover attempt, by buying the shares of stock he owns; also, the threat posed by corporate raiders to take over a company unless their stocks are purchased by the company at a price giving them a large profit. [Informal]

Wiktionary
greenmail

n. Profiting from an attempted hostile takeover by forcing the target company to buy back the hostile bidder's shares at an inflated price.

WordNet
greenmail

n. (corporation) the practice of purchasing enough shares in a firm to threaten a takeover and thereby forcing the owners to buy those shares back at a premium in order to stay in business

Wikipedia
Greenmail

Greenmail or greenmailing is the practice of purchasing enough shares in a firm to challenge a firm's management or leadership and even threaten a corporate takeover, thereby forcing the target firm to buy those shares back at a premium in order to suspend the potential takeover or to take other actions that remove equity from the greenmailer and return it to the target firm.

The term is a neologism derived from blackmail and greenback as commentators and journalists saw the practice of said corporate raiders as attempts by well-financed individuals or their operating companies to blackmail a company into handing over money by using the threat of a takeover.

Usage examples of "greenmail".

It's cheaper to settle, and just add the cost of his greenmail to the price of our aircraft.

Was it simply a bid to drive up the share price and exact greenmail from Kaiser?

No greenmail, no big fuss, but he’s pushin’ his brokers to buy at any price.

He's heard the stories from the claim jumpers and boardroom bandits, from the greenmail experts with their roots in the earthbound jurisdictions that have made such a hash of arbitration here.

He's heard the stories from the claim-jumpers and boardroom bandits, from the greenmail experts with their roots in the earthbound jurisdictions that have made such a hash of arbitration here: how she can experience a year in a minute, rip your memories out through your cortical implants and make you relive your worst mistakes in her nightmarishly powerful simulation system.

No greenmail, no big fuss, but he's pushin' his brokers to buy at any price.