VeriSign will pay US$1.67 per share, or $73 million, for Certicom, which develops an elliptic curve cryptography technology.

Armed with Certicom's ECC public-key encryption technology and its own SSL business, VeriSign expects to be able to enter new markets, it said.

RIM proposed its $52 million bid directly to Certicom's shareholders in December, after it said it had failed to engage Certicom in "meaningful dialog." Certicom filed a lawsuit to block the bid, charging that RIM had breached nondisclosure agreements in making its offer.

The companies announced Monday that a court had ruled that RIM breached the agreements. The ruling meant that Certicom shareholders would not be able to accept the offer, RIM said.