poison pill

poison pill
Anti- takeover device that gives a prospective acquiree's shareholders the right to buy shares of the firm or shares of anyone who acquires the firm at a deep discount to their fair market value. Named after the cyanide pill that secret government agents are said to be instructed to swallow if capture is imminent. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
See also: rights agreement

* * *

poison pill ˌpoison ˈpill noun [countable] JOURNALISM FINANCE
something in a company's financial or legal structure that is meant to make it difficult for another company to buy it in a takeover:

• The company's poison pill anti-takeover measure prevents a group from purchasing more than 10% of its stock.

— see also shark repellent

* * *

   Actions taken by a company to outwit a predator in a potential hostile takeover, so that swallowing the company will be like swallowing a poison pill. Examples are the issue of high yielding bonds, conditional rights to shareholders to buy shares at a large discount if the takeover succeeds or making massive long-term commitments to the company's pension funds.

* * *

poison pill UK US noun [C]
► FINANCE, MANAGEMENT, WORKPLACE something that a company does to make itself less attractive to another company that might want to buy it: »

A poison pill defence is any strategy used by a company to protect itself from a hostile takeover bid.


Financial and business terms. 2012.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Poison pill — is a term referring to any strategy, generally in business or politics, to increase the likelihood of negative results over positive ones for a party that attempts any kind of takeover. It derives from its original meaning of a literal poison… …   Wikipedia

  • poison pill — poi·son pill n: a financial tactic or provision used by a company to make an unwanted takeover prohibitively expensive or less desirable Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. poison pill …   Law dictionary

  • poison pill — poison pills N COUNT A poison pill refers to what some companies do to reduce their value in order to prevent themselves being taken over by another company. [BUSINESS] Some believe this level of compensation is essentially a poison pill to put… …   English dictionary

  • poison pill — A poison pill is a strategy designed to prevent a company from being taken over …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • poison pill — n technical informal something in a company s financial or legal structure that is intended to make it difficult for another company to take control of it …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • poison pill — ☆ poison pill n. Business any defensive measure for preventing the takeover of a corporation by making its acquisition prohibitively expensive for the party attempting to acquire it …   English World dictionary

  • Poison pill — Anit takeover device that gives a prospective acquiree s shareholders the right to buy shares of the firm or shares of anyone who acquires the firm at a deep discount to their fair market value. Named after the cyanide pill that secret agents are …   Financial and business terms

  • poison pill — noun the target company defends itself by making its stock less attractive to an acquirer • Hypernyms: ↑shark repellent, ↑porcupine provision • Hyponyms: ↑suicide pill * * * noun, pl ⋯ pills [count] business : something that a company does to… …   Useful english dictionary

  • poison pill — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms poison pill : singular poison pill plural poison pills business an action taken by a company in order to make someone less likely to want to start a takeover bid for it …   English dictionary

  • poison pill — n. an element introduced into the restructuring of a corporation so that it becomes undesirable for another corporation to take over. □ Acme Corporation approved a poison pill to prevent a hostile takeover. □ Mr. Boone would have bought the… …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”