An anti-takeover strategy that a firm undertakes by liquidating its valuable and desired assets and assuming liabilities in an effort to make the proposed takeover unattractive to the acquiring firm.
In extreme cases, this strategy might end up being a 'suicide pill'.

The scorched earth policy is actually a classic military strategy: generals would instruct troops to burn any land/crops/trees as they retreated so there would be no supplies to refresh the advancing army.