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Research In Motion Ends Certicom Takeover Efforts

7:01 am on January 21, 2009 | Category: Business, Corporate

BlackBerry manufacturer, Research In Motion, has officially backed down from its hostile takeover of Certicom Corp., after an Ontario judge ruled that the transaction was contrary to non-disclosure agreements between the companies.

RIM, which has been aggressively pursuing Certicom for the past 40 days, said in a statement yesterday evening that conditions of its offer “can no longer be satisfied” as a result of the ruling.

Now that the conflict has ended, RIM faces the difficult task of repairing rifts in its relationship with Certicom, according to AR Communications analyst, Carmi Levy.

“They already had a very long-standing relationship, and it’s unclear now what’s going to happen to that relationship now that they’ve slugged it out in court,” Levy explained. “These weren’t two stranger companies that met in the night.”

RIM and Certicom have done business with one another since 2000, and Certicom currently handles data encryption services for BlackBerry devices. If this friendly partnership is to continue, executives with the companies will have to work to rebuild trust.

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