Research In Motion, which had originally offered to pay C$1.50 a share for security software maker Certicom has doubled its offer, resulting in a superior bid to what VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN) was willing to pay, Reuters reports. Apparently, Certicom is capable of putting things in the past because it fought RIM’s first bid in court, arguing that the BlackBerry-maker breached non-disclosure agreements by using confidential and proprietary information supplied by Certicom to RIM (NSDQ: RIMM). The court had ordered a permanent injunction. That’s when VeriSign came out of the woodwork to offer Certicom C$2.10 a share for the company. Clearly, RIM’s latest offer at C$3 or about C$131 million ($106.5 million) is a sweeter deal.
Now VeriSign has until Feb. 11 to submit a new offer, however, a counter-bid is unlikely, according to Blackmont Capital analyst Lawrence Rhee. “They could notch it up higher, but I just think VeriSign thinks that RIM will come and outbid it again. So why go through that process,” Rhee said.
Comments have been disabled for this post