English

Noun

whitemail ‎(plural whitemails)

1. (business) A tactic to resist hostile takeover, in which the target company sells discounted stock to a friendly third party
   • 1991, Michael T. Jacobs, Short-term America: The Causes and Cures of Our Business Myopia, ISBN 087584300X, page 92:

     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. Persuasion based on positive rather than negative effects
   • 2000, Gore Vidal, The Golden Age, ISBN 0385500750, page 432:

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

See also

• whitemail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

whitemail ‎(third-person singular simple present whitemails, present participle whitemailing, simple past and past participle whitemailed)

1. To persuade
   • 2000, January 2, “Howard Manly”, in Tuning in Memories: Channel Surfing Comes With a Hefty Price Tag:

     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, Gore Vidal, The Golden Age, ISBN 0385500750, page 432:

     The ability to whitemail an emotional older man like my father into falling in love with him so that he would help him rise.

2. (ironic) To blackmail a dark-skinned person
   • 1973, January 1, Avenging "Whitemail":

     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."

Related terms

• blackmail, graymail, greenmail