Opera gets $1.2 billion buyout offer from mix of Chinese firms, board recommends deal
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Just found out about Opera http://www.zdnet.com/article/opera-gets-1-2-billion-buyout-offer-from-mix-of-chinese-firms/
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One thing to remember as this moves along is that all promises and assurances a buyee makes to the public prior to a sale's consummation are worth nothing after the sale is approved and goes through. The promises that then matter are those made by the buyer - and even those depend on his trustworthiness and past record. The only thing certain at this point is that change will be coming.
Sales propositions and processes like this don't occur in a vacuum on the spur of the moment. To one degree or another, Opera ASA has to have been "in play" since before this sales proposal was ever made. So… if not this buyer, then another would eventually appear.
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It is kind of sad to see Opera get sold like that, and kind of give up. But then again, what will become of them? Will they go down the drain further with Chinese ownership, or will they get better now that they have a bigger base to develop from? I don't know, but a lot of people reacted like it was a very bad thing, and a lot of people were really angry. It's clear that Opera as we know it is no longer with us. I just uninstalled Opera on Windows 10 and Android the day the announcement came out.
On the bright side, this does say something really good. And that's about Jon. He built this major company into what it was, and then after O12, it seems like it lost a lot of users(so I heard), and started going down the tubes as it became worse. It went up a little bit some years later, from what I read, but I don't know if it was as much as it was before. It did have 350 million users.
Opera was successful in the first place because of Jon and what he made the browser like. Since it changed, it basically went into maintaining mode, and so the fact that it was just sold for $1.2 billion, that's a lot of money. And I think that's a testament to Jon's success.
Lets hope he helps grow Vivaldi into 9-figure user numbers, and have a real browser that can make the top 5 again!
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While it's true Opera started as a browser company, that is not how it makes its money, and that is not why it sold for $1.2 Bn.
Read here http://www.operasoftware.com/ why someone would pay this kind of money for a company.
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Here is the Ars Technica story on it.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2016/02/chinese-tech-firms-circle-opera-with-820-million-buyout-bid/ -