FT Professional Glossary
Poison pill
A form of defence used by a company to prevent, or to reduce the effect of, a takeover that they do not want, for example by selling some of their important possessions
Example usage from an FT article:
Another option that could be considered by OpenAI’s board is introducing a shareholder rights plan, or poison pill, which would allow shareholders to buy up additional shares at a discount in order to fend off hostile takeovers.
Excerpt from "OpenAI seeks new powers to fend off hostile takeover from Elon Musk"
