The opera browser on sale! This has been the alternative to other Internet browsers for years, including , , Safari and even the almost dead but very much alive Internet Explorer.
The Norwegian company Opera Software, with 20 years of existence, has proposed the sale of the companybeing supported by the banks ABG Sundal Collier and Morgan Stanley International, who would seek to facilitate the search for a potential buyer who finds value and opportunity in the products and technologies of this organization.
The Opera browser is for sale, but who wants it?
However, many reasons are needed to bet on it. The Opera browser represents just the 1.3% of all internet visits in the world, according to . It’s just a quarter of the users who use Apple’s Safari, and 1/39 of those who use Internet Explorer.
Opera it also does not stand out in the mobile field, where it barely holds 6% of the browser market for smartphones; a huge difference compared to 42.4% of Safari for iOS or 33.2% of Google Chrome for Android.
Much of the sustenance of the Opera browser relies heavily on mobile advertising, billing two thirds of their income in that concept. This is another sensitive issue at the company, as its revenue prospects would surely see a drop when the change in ownership occurs. In addition to this, Opera already lowers its forecasts for fiscal year 2015, expecting revenues of around 600-618 million US dollars compared to the 630-650 million US dollars previously expected.
It is difficult to think today who could acquire the Opera browser, since the majority of potential players in the market have already opted for other options. Such is the case of Google, which is still the default search engine in Firefox for the whole world except the United States.
Another example is that of the Safari browser, which has an acceptable performance for Apple -which it keeps quite happy-, while Microsoft has just launched to try to stop the loss of users due to the “death” of Internet Explorer. Everything would point, then, to who would be the one who could acquire it (if the “big players in the technology sector” are taken into account).
Which of these companies do you think would want to take over Opera? Share your opinion with us.
Some general aspects of the Opera browser
Opera is a web browser created by the Norwegian company Opera Software. It has versions for desktop computers, mobile phones and tablets. It has various supports with mobile operating systems ranging from Maemo, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, Android and iOS, as well as the Java ME platform.
Opera has been a pioneer in originating features that have been later adopted by other web browsers, such as Speed Dial.
The browser started in 1994 as a research project at Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company; in 1995, the company branched off and was taken over by Opera Software.
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