What is leveraging?

[Davie]

I have seen this word used a few times in company communications and am intrigued to know what it actually means. I have seen posters announcing that we are going to be more competitive by leveraging the latest IT or more recently there has been a circular with the headline "Leveraging the One Company approach". I can't find any reference to a verb "leverage" in any dictionaries I have looked at and am wondering if anyone could enlighten me.

[mykwyner]

Generally, it means to make full use of a numerical advantage rather than seek a more even playing field. For instance if company A wanted to buy company B and made them a fair offer for their stock, that would be a normal transaction. If company A secretly purchased large amounts of company B's stock, then used the advantage of the stock's votes to force company B to sell to company at a price that was at company A'a advantage, that would be a leveraged buyout.