Meaning of poison pill | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any strategy designed to produce negative results for an entity carrying out a takeover.
2. A provision in a bill that leads to potential supporters opposing it instead.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see poison, pill.

Examples

“The study also concludes that there is no indication that poison pills reduce the chance that a company will become a takeover target. In contrast, if investors viewed the introduction of the poison pill as deterring potential takeover attempts, the effect on shareholder returns would be negative.”

“There are reasons Twitter may opt not to do a poison pill. It might be wary of potential criticism that a poison pill is deflecting the concerns of a highly vocal member of its community.”

“They want to load the bills up with poison pills, measures the Republicans are inserting in the legislation to make sure I will veto it, so they can pretend it's not just the poison pill I'm against but the bill itself.”

“"It was a poison pill," Zwonitzer said of the creation of the state military. "We're a landlocked state that does not need an aircraft carrier."”

CEFR level