NRI appointed the president and CEO of the
Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC)
Indo-Canadian CEO to head top tech body
Toronto, Aug 11, 2011: Indo-Canadian CEO Karna Gupta, who made headlines in 2009 in stopping hostile takeover of his encryption company by BlackBerry, has been appointed the president and CEO of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC).
The apex body of the Canadian information and communications technology industry, ITAC member companies generate $155 billion in revenue each year.
Gupta has been the CEO of the Toronto-area Certicom Corporation which is a leader in encryption technology.
The technology developed by Gupta's company has made BlackBerry the darling of government officials and corporate honchos for secure transfer of messages and data.
But Gupta had to fight a hard legal battle with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) when it made a $66-million "unfriendly" offer directly to Certicom's shareholders for its takeover to get exclusive access to encryption technology in 2009.
RIM had made the direct offer to Certicom shareholders after it failed to take over Certicom through talks with Gupta. Previously, Gupta worked as president at New Jersey-based Comverse Technologies which, under him, became the leader in telecom billing in emerging economies.
He has also been vice president at Bell Canada - a top telecom company....IANS///NRIpress.com
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NRI Karna Gupta, CEO of Certicom had sought court intervention,
citing that RIM had violated non-disclosure agreements with it
while making its bid for takeover.
Certicom Granted
Permanent Injunction Restraining RIM Take-Over Bid
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
January 19, 2009
Satnam Bajwa
Certicom Corp. announced today that the Ontario Superior Court
of Justice has granted a permanent injunction restraining the
$1.50 hostile take-over bid made on December 10, 2008 by a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Research in Motion Limited (“RIM”) from
proceeding. Waterloo-based RIM had made an offer of $66 million
to the shareholders of Certicom Corp, based at Mississauga on
the outskirts of Toronto, after its talks with the management
failed.
The injunction was granted by the Court following application
by Certicom on the basis that RIM and its subsidiary had breached
non-disclosure agreements entered into by Certicom and RIM in
2007 and 2008 by using confidential and proprietary information
supplied by Certicom to RIM for its bid. Certicom had provided
this information to RIM for its use in the course of discussions
respecting a possible friendly acquisition of Certicom by RIM.
As part of its ruling, the Court found that RIM and its subsidiary
had breached the non-disclosure agreements.
This decision will effectively require RIM to withdraw its bid.
If RIM wishes to proceed with a subsequent offer, it may do so
in compliance with its non-disclosure agreements with Certicom,
or with Certicom’s consent.
As previously announced, in response to RIM’s bid, Certicom
formed a Special Committee of independent directors, which together
with its financial and legal advisors, carefully reviewed RIM's
offer and is evaluating all of Certicom's strategic alternatives.
Following a thorough review involving both the Special Committee
of independent directors and its financial and legal advisors,
the Board of Directors of Certicom found the RIM offer to be undervalued
and not in the best interests of Certicom shareholders.
The Board is continuing to conduct a value maximization process
that is designed to facilitate the proposal of superior alternatives
from qualified third parties. The Company has established a data
room to provide confidential information to interested parties
and has signed non-disclosure and standstill agreements with a
number of these parties.
NRI
Karna Gupta appointed as new CEO of Certicom
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 09, 2009
Satnam Bajwa
NRI Karna Gupta, former Bell Canada executive has been named
as CEO of Security technology company Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC)
by replacing interim chief executive Bernard Crotty. The board
is delighted to welcome a seasoned executive like Karna Gupta
to lead the company in the execution of its growth strategy
- Karna Gupta is a proven innovator and strategic thinker with
an impressive track record of developing and delivering next-generation
software solutions to key markets, including mobility, enterprise
and service providers.
- He was formerly president of the real-time billing division
of Comverse Technologies and held several executive leadership
positions with Bell Canada.
- He has excelled at growing businesses globally and has built
impressive customer relationships in North America, Europe and
Asia.
Karna Gupta most recently held the role of President for the
Real-Time Billing Division of Comverse Technologies in New Jersey.
In this role, he held profit and loss responsibility and managed
all aspects of the product division, including developing the
latest solutions for service providers, managing a globally-distributed
workforce and serving a global customer base. His previous role
in Comverse was Chief Marketing Officer for Comverse Americas.
He also held the roles of the Business Development and CTO reporting
to him.
Mr. Gupta held several executive leadership positions with Bell
Canada, including Vice President, Product Development and Management.
He was responsible for Competitive Network Services and under
his leadership Bell Canada became a recognized world leader in
Enhanced Services.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Master of Business
Administration degree in Marketing and Finance from Concordia
University in Montreal, Quebec. He has also attended executive
development programs at Duke University, Harvard/MIT and the University
of Western Ontario.
Gupta will begin in the position Jan. 21, 2009
About Certicom: Certicom protects the value
of content, applications and devices with government-approved
security. Adopted by the National Security Agency (NSA) for government
communications, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provides the
most security per bit of any known public-key scheme. As the global
leader in ECC, Certicom security offerings are currently licensed
to more than 300 customers including General Dynamics, Motorola,
Oracle, Research In Motion and Unisys. Founded in 1985, Certicom's
corporate offices are in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada with worldwide
sales and marketing headquarters in Reston, Virginia and offices
in the U.S., Canada, Europe and China
Certicom holds over 130 patents related to Elliptic Curve Cryptography
and public key cryptography in general.One of Certicom's top clients
is the National Security Agency, which is responsible for the
security of all United States governmental communications. Certicom's
Elliptic Curve Cryptography technology is used to protect confidential,
secret, and top secret internal and interagency communications
between such groups as the Department of Homeland Security, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Defense.
