Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• POISON PILL
  
  An anti-takeover plan devised to automatically be activated when the company gets bought over in an unfriendly takeover. A Golden Parachute is one such device. Another might be a plan whereby all the firm's debt becomes due if the current management is removed. A corporate provision to combat hostile takeovers. When triggered, the poison pill allows shareholders to acquire additional shares at below market price, thereby increasing the number of shares outstanding and making the takeover prohibitively expensive. Such plans are relatively new in corporate Canada and are the subject of some controversy regarding whom they are designed to protect.
  
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