whitemail meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

whitemail

noun

Etymology From white + mail, by analogy with blackmail.

Business 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.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.

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:

verb

Etymology From white + mail, by analogy with blackmail.

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.2000 January 2, Howard Manly, “Tuning in Memories: Channel Surfing Comes With a Hefty Price Tag”, in Boston Globe:
The ability to whitemail an emotional older man like my father into falling in love with him so that he would help him rise.2000, Gore Vidal, The Golden Age, →ISBN, page 432:

Ironic 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."1973 January 1, “Avenging "Whitemail"”, in Time Magazine, archived from the original on 14 Dec 2008: