Mailing List.
Names, addresses and sometimes phone numbers of consumers or businesses aggregated by buying characteristics such as age, income, education, size of household or business and ownership of property. Mailing lists are used for direct mail and to generate sales leads.

Marketing Plan.
A company plan for marketing products and services and increasing sales.

Market Share.
The percentage of a product category´s sales, in dollars or units, that a particular brand, product line or company controls.

Marketing Communications.
The process and techniques involved in marketing, promoting or selling products or services through creative, visual or written communications. Also known as “marcom.”

Maturity.
In general, the period and date when payment of a loan is due. As applied to securities and commercial paper, the period and date when payment of principal is due.

Maturity Extension.
Extension of payment beyond the original date established for repayment of a loan.

Mediation.
A form of alternative dispute resolution in which a neutral party (a mediator) seeks to promote and negotiate a settlement between opposing parties in a dispute. There is no mechanism to compel the parties to settle; they must voluntarily agree to any settlement.

Medium.
A type of publication or communications method that conveys news, entertainment and advertising to an audience. Examples include newspapers, television, magazines, radio, billboards and the Internet.

Merger.
Typically, a combination of two or more corporations into one corporation.

Mortgage.
An instrument giving legal title to secure the repayment of a loan made by the mortgagee (lender).

MP-3 (MPEG Third Layer).
A popular audio file format. Files encoded in MP-3 compress data at a 10:1 ratio, making it suitable for sending large, high-quality audio files over the Internet.

MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group).
A common file format for sending audio and/or video over the Internet.

Multimedia.
Information that combines different types of content, such as text, images, animation, video and audio.

Negligence.
An action or omission falling below the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation.

Netiquette.
A code of conduct that governs behavior on the Internet. Netiquette, for example, requires Internet users not to send unsolicited commercial email, or “spam,” to large numbers of other users. Many Internet Service Providers and discussion groups will ban users who consistently violate these rules.

Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA).
A contract in which a person or business agrees to maintain the confidentiality of proprietary information or trade secrets and not disclose such information without authorization. Employees, consultants, business partners and investors are often asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Nonexempt Employee.
Employees who are protected by wage laws that mandate payment for every hour of overtime worked.

Nonprofit Corporation.
A form of corporation in which no stockholder or trustee shares in profits or losses and which usually exists to accomplish some charitable or educational function. These organizations are exempt from corporate income taxes, and donations to these groups may be tax deductible.

Nonqualified Stock Options (NSOs).
Nonqualified stock options may be granted to employees, consultants, contractors and others. When nonqualified stock options are exercised the holder must pay ordinary income tax on them, even if the shares have not yet been sold.

Notes Receivable.
A secured or unsecured receivable evidenced by a note.

Numeric Messaging/Paging.
A service that lets a pager receive pages and messages containing numeric information.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
A federal organization established to promote healthy and safe work environments. OSHA requires employers to inform employees of potential hazards, provide safety training and report workplace injuries. Many individual states have similar agencies.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Software that lets computers "read" printed documents input via a scanner and converts the image into a computer text file that users can edit.

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).
A company that produces the equipment that bears another company´s label.

Operating Expenses.
In real estate, the costs of maintaining a property, such as utility charges and property taxes.

Overnight Delivery.
A service promising delivery of packages by a designated time of the next business day.

Overrun.
A quantity of printed material or other manufactured product that exceeds the amount ordered.