Finance:Bankmail

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Not to be confused with Blackmail.

Bbankmail' is a tactic used in company mergers or acquisitions, specially in the case of a hostile takeover. It is an agreement between a company and a bank whereby the bank commits to providing financing for a specific takeover bid while agreeing not to finance competing bids from other potential acquirers. [1]

History

Bankmail became popular in the 1980s during the hostile takeover boom.[2] Unlike takeover defenses such as poison pills or greenmail, bankmail operated through acquisition financing: a bank that supported one party to a transaction agreed not to finance a competing bidder.[3]

Notable cases

One of the most well-known examples is the 1989 attempted merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications. Time allegedly paid a few banks not to help finance a hostile bid while also arranging emergency financing for itself.[4]

In another attempted takeover of Unocal Corp.. by T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Petroleum, Unocal sued Security Pacific National Bank.[5][6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bankmail Definition". Nasdaq. https://www.nasdaq.com/glossary/b/bankmail. 
  2. ↑ "Paramount Communications, Inc. v. Time Inc.". https://law.justia.com/cases/delaware/supreme-court/1990/571-a-2d-1140-5.html. 
  3. ↑ "The 1980s Takeover Era and Lipton's Stockholder Rights Plan". https://theliptonarchive.org/1980s/. 
  4. ↑ Dunne, John Gregory (23 April 1992). "Your Time Is My Time". The New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/04/23/your-time-is-my-time/. Retrieved 7 July 2026. 
  5. ↑ Rowe, James L. Jr. (13 March 1985). "Unocal Sues Bank for Pickens Deal". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1985/03/13/unocal-sues-bank-for-pickens-deal/a8cd992a-90e3-453b-a180-c4e81d79166b/. 
  6. ↑ "951 F. 2d 1512 - Colan v. Mesa Petroleum Co Colan". https://m.openjurist.org/951/f2d/1512. 



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