RIM Locks In Certicom Acquisition

By Geoff Duncan February 12, 2009

RIM Locks In Certicom Acquisition

Research in Motion‘s bid to take over encryption technology developer Certicom now appears to be a done deal, with competing bidder VeriSign notifying Certicom that it would not top RIM’s latest offer of $3 CDN per share, or about $106 million USD. RIM has been moving to acquire Certicom for some time to augment its mobile products with enhanced security, including elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) technologies, which, on a per-bit basis, are currently considered more secure than other forms of cryptography. Certicom says the U.S. National Security Agency uses ECC technology to encrypt government communications.

RIM originally offered $1.50 CDN per share to take over Certicom, which Certicom rejected in December as undervaluing the company, and an Ontario court issued an injunction blocking RIM’s takeover attempt. Sensing opportunity, VeriSign stepped in with an offer of $2.10 CND per share, and the companies announced a VeriSign acquisition would go forward. However, the agreement allowed a window in which Certicom could consider superior offers, and RIM jumped through, offering $3 CDN per share, double it’s original takeover offer.

The acquisition will also give RIM possession of Certicom’s Mobile Trust digital certificate technology, which enables both parties in an e-commerce transaction to positively identify each other. The technology is currently used by a number of large enterprises, including IBM, Motorola, Oracle, and General Dynamics.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Mobile

How to customize your iPhone lock screen on iOS 16

An iPhone with iOS 16, showing the new Lock Screen.

As iOS 16 launches, Apple's iPhone is getting more and more customizable. After allowing people to swap out icons in iOS 15 using Shortcuts, iOS 16 introduces a powerful lock screen. Now, you're able to build your iPhone so that it feels like yours. Rather than simply changing just the background picture, you can also change the font, add widgets, and build new types of wallpapers powered by emoji.

Mobile

Google Pixel Watch hands-on: years of work, and a Fitbit acquisition, led to this

Google Pixel Watch on a wrist.

Google is in the watch game, everyone! It's hard to even remember when the "Pixel Watch" rumors first started, but I know it was well before Google acquired Fitbit. And honestly it doesn't really matter now -- I put a Pixel Watch on my wrist today. At least, for a short period of time in the demo area following Google's October hardware event, where it launched alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

Google's propensity for simple, near-featureless, hardware design is on full display with the Pixel Watch. The round, pebble-like design is a near-symmetrical sandwich where the glass front flows seamlessly into the metal casing that tapers down to the glass back with little distinction. You get a pop of color to differentiate things in the silver and gold options, but if you go for the black model you're left with a largely featureless look.

Mobile

Samsung just copy-and-pasted iOS 16’s lock screen in its One UI 5 beta

From left, Good Lock, Samsung One UI 5 beta, and iOS 16 lock screens are displayed on smartphones.

It's hard to tell sometimes if iPhone innovations inspire Android or the other way around. Google introduced Material You for Android 13, while Apple programmed iOS 16 with lock screen customization -- giving their respective customers all the personalization power in the world. Now, it seems Samsung made lock screen customization on its phones look similar to that of iOS 16 in its latest One UI 5 beta.

Video creator and TechDroider founder Vaibhav Jain pointed out on Twitter that the lock screen interface for One UI 5 is a spitting image of the lock screen interface for iOS 16, but with some differences. Whereas iOS 16 gives users a selection of eight clock face designs, One UI 5 gives only five. The former also offers both built-in and third-party widgets (like Widgetable), while the latter only offers widget icons for notifications.