Waterloo – Research In Motion (RIM) wins its battle to acquire major supplier Certicom, after topping a bid by VeriSign Inc. of California. RIM’s offer of $3.00 per share surpassed the previously agreed to offer of $2.10 from Certicom, which receives a $4 million breakup fee from the Mississauga based company. The deal is worth more than $130 million for 43.7 million Certicom shares. “The Board of Directors of Certicom has concluded that the RIM transaction is in the best interests of the corporation, and unanimously recommends that shareholders of Certicom vote in favour of the offer,” says Jeffrey Chisholm, chairman of Certicom’s board. A special meeting of shareholders will be held to vote on the deal. Under the deal, RIM will have access to encryption technology that could help create new BlackBerry devices that will work like personal wallets, as well as mobile phones. Carmi Levy, an analyst at AR Communications, says “RIM in many respects will be in the captain’s seat because it will be able to control who has access to that technology and how much they will pay for the privilege.”
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