, the company behind the popular mobile browser, has been acquired by a consortium of Chinese companies for NOK 10.5 billion ($1.2 billion). The consortium consists of mobile game developer Kunlun and mobile security maker Qihoo, and is backed by investment funds Golden Brick and Yonglian.
The acquisition opens up Opera to a wider userbase in China, while giving Kunlun and Qihoo access to Opera's mobile advertising platform. From Opera CEO Lars Boilesen:
There is strong strategic and industrial logic to the acquisition of Opera by the Consortium. We believe that the Consortium, with its breadth of expertise and strong market position in emerging markets, will be a strong owner of Opera. The Consortium's ownership will strengthen Opera's position to serve our users and partners with even greater innovation, and to accelerate our plans of expansion and growth.
Aside from Opera's mobile browser, the company has expanded into video compression with , which promises to cut data usage by half without affecting the quality of the video. The feature is built into Opera Mini, and Opera has partnered with Xiaomi to integrate the technology into MIUI 7.
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