Greenmail Definition
Greenmail or greenmailing is a corporate acquisition strategy for generating large amounts of money from the attempted hostile takeover of large, often undervalued or inefficient companies. It proved lucrative for investors such as T. Boone Pickens and Sir James Goldsmith during the 1980s.
The term is a neologism derived from blackmail and greenback as commentators and journalists saw the practice of said corporate raiders for what they were - attempts by well-financed individuals to blackmail a company into handing over money by using the threat of a takeover.