Poison pill

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 instructed to swallow if capture is imminent. The New York Times Financial Glossary

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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

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   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.

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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.

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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 — 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 …   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

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