Home › Words › W › whitemailwhitemailwhitemail means A tactic to resist hostile takeover, in which the target company sells discounted stock to a friendly third party.EtymologyFrom white + mail, by analogy with blackmail.nounA tactic to resist hostile takeover, in which the target company sells discounted stock to a friendly third party.e.g.“Whitemail, which also appears unfair to some, may enhance shareholder value if the outside investor is able to influence management in a more positive way than other shareholders could.” — 1991, Michael T. Jacobs, Short-term America: The Causes and Cures of Our Business Myopia, →ISBN, page 92:Persuasion based on positive rather than negative effects.e.g.“Certainly FDR was a master of his own kind of whitemail and practiced it on the likes of Harry Hopkins.” — 2000, Gore Vidal, The Golden Age, →ISBN, page 432:verbTo persuade.Of a white person: to carry out blackmail.Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).Words closest in meaningBy meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.antitakeover 54% match — Countering a corporate takeover. vs whitemail →antibuyout 49% match — Opposing a buyout. vs whitemail →greenmailer 48% match — One who greenmails. vs whitemail →buyout 46% match — The acquisition of a controlling interest in a business or corporation by outright purchase or by purchase of a majority of issued shares of stock. vs whitemail →prebuyout 46% match — Before a buyout. vs whitemail →graymail 45% match — The threatened exposure of state secrets in order to manipulate legal proceedings. vs whitemail →antiwhite 45% match — Hostile to white people or white culture. vs whitemail →blackmailee 45% match — The victim of blackmail. vs whitemail →