A consortium of Chinese companies has made a $1.2 billion (about RM5 billion) bid to buy out Opera. While the web browser maker has not yet responded to the deal, its board of directors has recommended that it accept the offer.
The consortium is comprised of several large Chinese internet companies, which includes Kunlun and Qihoo 360. It is unclear as to why these companies are interested in Opera, although the company has been searching for a buyer since August 2015. Opera has been facing a slump in earnings on its reduce market share and slowing advertising income.
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Opera CEO Lars Boilesen says that the takeover deal will help Opera help stabilise its position, and accelerate plans for growth. The company has recently added three more OEMs to its partnership programme, which will see its Opera Max data management app integrated into Acer, Hisense, and TWZ smartphones – along with 11 other brands.
There has been a greater focus on mobile devices from Opera, which believes that it has the solution to managing increasingly large website sizes. The claim is that the mobile Opera browser is able to load pages faster, while reducing data consumption. That hasn’t stopped the company from facing stiff competition in the browser market; both on computers and mobile.
[Source: ZDnet]
