safe harbor

1. 1.

   the target company defends itself by acquiring a company so onerously regulated that it makes the target less attractive

   “the acquisition gave the company a safe harbor”

   Broadershark repellent

Questions about safe harbor

What does safe harbor mean?

safe harbor means "the target company defends itself by acquiring a company so onerously regulated that it makes the target less attractive".

Is safe harbor a common word?

safe harbor is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.