RIM wins battle for cryptography company Certicom

The battle for the Canadian cryptography company Certicom is apparently over, and Research In Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry phones, is the likely winner.

RIM had been waging a bidding war for Certicom against the U.S. company VeriSign, known primarily for digital certificates and internet infrastructure services. 

Last week, RIM placed a sweetened bid for Certicom, maker of patented elliptic curve cryptography products, which are extremely efficient, high-security solutions for smartphone platforms, Carmi Levy, technology analyst at Gazelle Insights, told SCMagazineUS.com Tuesday. RIM has been working closely with Certicom for about nine years.

"The technology underpins the security component of the BlackBerry platform," Levy said.

The bid set the new value for Certicom at about $106.5 million, more than double RIM's initial offer in December, which it withdrew in January. In a Certicom news release, the company said that VeriSign will not exercise its right to match the RIM offer.

VeriSign is entitled to a $3.2 million termination fee payable by Certicom under their agreement announced in January. Both Certicom and VeriSign shares declined on the news, while RIM's rose.