Research In Motion’s wholly-owned subsidiary has formally commenced its take-over bid for all of the outstanding common shares of Certicom for C$1.50 in cash per share.
Founded in 1985 and headquartered at Mississauga, Ontario in Canada, Certicom develops software and hardware applications for device security, anti-counterfeiting, product authentication, asset management, and fixed-mobile convergence.
Certicom’s customers such as IBM, Continental Airlines, Aristocrat Technologies, Cavium, General Dynamics, Motorola, Oracle, Unisys, XM, Bally Technology, GE, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Mitre, L-3, Phillips, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Nortel depend on its technology to secure applications, communications, and mobile devices.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2009 ended October 31, 2008, Certicom has posted revenue of $6.6 million, compared to $3.8 million during the same period in fiscal 2008. For the first six months of fiscal 2009, revenue was $10.8 million, compared to $7.0 million in the first six months of fiscal 2008, an increase of 54% year-over-year.
RIM has said that the C$1.50 in cash per common share represents a premium of approximately 76.5% over the closing price of Certicom shares on December 2, 2008, and a premium of approximately 76.1% over the volume weighted average price of the Certicom shares for the 20 trading days prior to December 3, 2008.