B. A corporation's defense against an unwanted takeover bid.
Listen to pronunciationLegal Definition -
A corporation's defense against an unwanted takeover bid whereby shareholders are granted the right to acquire equity or debt securities at a favorable price in order to increase the bidder's costs.
Black's Law Dictionary® Eighth Edition © 2004
Current Usage -
Roche is unlikely to succeed in invalidating Ventana's poison pill, and will probably try other measures to proceed with its hostile bid to buy the diagnostics company, according to M&A experts. The drug giant yesterday extended its takeover offer to 17 January from 1 November. Meanwhile, a "boilerplate lawsuit" is pending in Delaware court - a district that has not forced a company to lift a poison pill since at least the late-1980s, according to William Lawlor, a partner at law firm Dechert, which is not involved in the case. "These types of cases are very familiar - they're typically instituted by any hostile bidder," he said. "The bottom line is that I don't think they'll get a pill redemption." In addition, Ventana's poison pill expires in March, two months ahead of its annual meeting - another reason why a court would be "reluctant" to force a redemption, he noted. Yet Lawlor suggested that Roche might file an injunction to block Ventana from extending its poison pill.
Financial Times, Beth Herskovits, November 7, 2007