VeriSign to acquire Certicom after firm spurns RIM takeover attempt

VeriSign Inc. announced plans to acquire Certicom Inc. just days after Research In Motion Ltd. dropped its takeover bid of the Canadian software developer.
VeriSign will pay either $40 million net of Certicom’s existing cash and short-term marketable securities or a flat $73 million, the companies said late Friday. The price tag of $1.72 per share marks a 26% premium over Certicom shares at Friday’s close on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
RIM last week aborted its attempted hostile takeover of Certicom after a Canadian court imposed an injunction on the bid. The BlackBerry maker had offered $1.23 per share after Certicom spurned a friendly takeover attempt.
VeriSign aims to capitalize on Certicom’s elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) technology, leveraging VeriSign’s reach to target “emerging market opportunities in which ECC can efficiently enable secure data communications.” RIM for years has used Certicom’s ECC technology in its BlackBerry devices.
“Certicom’s leadership in elliptic curve cryptography technology allows VeriSign to develop adjacent market opportunities closely aligned with our core SSL business,” said Jim Bidzos, VeriSign’s executive chairman and interim CEO. “We expect our customers and the market will benefit from the combination of Certicom’s high-quality encryption technology and VeriSign’s proven certificate services infrastructure.”
Shares of Certicom nosed downward on the news, dropping 5 cents, or 2%, to $2.29 by mid-day Monday. VeriSign shares inched upward 15 cents, or less than 1%, to $18.61.