CERTICOM COMPLETES COMMON SHARE OFFERING

Hayward, Calif., March 26, 2001 -- Certicom Corp. (Nasdaq: CERT; TSE: CIC) announced today that it has completed the recently announced offering of 3.5 million common shares at a price of Cdn $12.50 per share (approximately U.S. $8.07 per share). The offering was underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters led by Yorkton Securities Inc. and including BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and TD Securities Inc. The net proceeds to the Company from the offering were Cdn. $41.1 million (approximately U.S. $26.5 million).

Rick Dalmazzi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Certicom Corp., said that he was delighted by the enthusiastic response to the offering from both institutional and retail investors, noting that the offering has broadened Certicom's investor base and increased liquidity for existing shareholders.

The net proceeds of the offering will be used to expand Certicom's sales and marketing activities, develop and enhance its products and services, for working capital and general corporate purposes and for possible acquisitions of additional businesses and technologies.

About Certicom
Certicom is a leading provider of information security software and services, specializing in solutions for mobile e-business. The company's products and services are specifically designed to address the challenges imposed by a wireless data environment. Certicom's solutions incorporate its efficient encryption technology and are based on industry standards for information security that utilize public key cryptography. Certicom's products are currently licensed to more than 150 customers including ePocrates, Inc., Motorola, Inc., NeoPoint, Inc., Nortel Networks, Openwave Systems, Palm, Inc., Pixo, Inc., QUALCOMM, Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. and Sony International (Europe) GmbH. Certicom's headquarters and worldwide sales and marketing operations are based in the Silicon Valley in Hayward. For more information, visit Certicom's Web site at http://www.certicom.com.

Certicom is a trademark of Certicom Corp. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Except for historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile e-commerce), the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principle products and sales of our customer's products, the impact of competitive products and technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of third parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Certicom's financial results is included in the documents Certicom files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities including Certicom's current Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For further information, please contact: 

Lorraine Kauffman Elizabeth Safran
Certicom Corporation Lutchansky Communications for Certicom
(510) 780-5417 (408) 938-9050 x25
lkauffman@certicom.com elizabeth@lcomm.com