Unlike Kimberly-Clark and Quebec-based hardware and lumber retailer Rona, which buckled under harsh criticism and paid greenmail, Resolute fought back, providing documentation that the allegations were untrue.

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Even if, as seems likely, his raid ends in greenmail at a higher share price, shareholders in Bombay Dyeing and Ballarpur will have reason to be grateful to him.

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Saul Steinberg was a pioneering corporate raider who helped originate the practice of greenmail, in which a company he targeted for a takeover paid him immense sums to go away.

WSJ: Saul Steinberg 1939 - 2012 | Pioneering Corporate Raider Helped Originate Greenmail

It was around that time that the word "greenmail" gained currency, and if Mr. Steinberg was hardly the only beneficiary, he was among the most feared personalities in corporate America.

WSJ: Saul Steinberg 1939 - 2012 | Pioneering Corporate Raider Helped Originate Greenmail

Yet some of the deals in which British groups such as Swire and Hongkong Telecom, which is owned by Britain's Cable and Wireless, have sold stakes to Chinese groups look more like the results of greenmail than the formation of useful partnerships.

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