whitemail

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A tactic to resist hostile takeover, in which the target company sells discounted stock…

   A tactic to resist hostile takeover, in which the target company sells discounted stock to a friendly third party.

   • 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.
2. 2

   Persuasion based on positive rather than negative effects.

   • Certainly FDR was a master of his own kind of whitemail and practiced it on the likes of Harry Hopkins.
3. 3

   To persuade.

   • Major League Baseball whitemailed ESPN into paying a lot more, and the only thing we can be assured of is that the same old products and announcers will come in clearer in 2000 thanks to digital technology.
   • The ability to whitemail an emotional older man like my father into falling in love with him so that he would help him rise.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      Of a white person

      Of a white person: to carry out blackmail.

      • Sweating heavily under the hot lights, he started off with a diatribe against British policy toward Uganda, especially London's recent decision to cancel a $24 million aid program, which Amin dismissed as "whitemailing."

The neighborhood

• neighborblackmail