Walt Disney Productions and St. Regis Corp., the forest-products firm, have both been victims of greenmail. In a greenmail ploy, an investor buys enough stock in a company to pose a takeover threat in hopes that the firm's officers will buy him out at a premium. Disney paid $297.4 million in June for shares held by Financier Saul Steinberg, who made a quick $32 million profit. St. Regis has been greenmailed twice, first by Sir James Goldsmith, the British industrialist, and then by Loews Corp., the hotel and movie-theater company.
Last week Disney and St. Regis faced the fact that greenmail...