Opera is quite a quirky company, much like the browser it makes. Despite never becoming very popular on the desktop, Opera is making money from its mobile and embedded browsers.
Still, while Opera Mini is going strong, Opera isn't making much progress in the smartphone market as well.
Its future doesn't look great or, at the very least, what it's been doing so far hasn't been working great and won't work at all soon enough.
Sure, there is an
iPad browser prototype and probably a few others, but it's hard to make a dent in the browser market.
That said, Opera is home to a large number of talented people and is regularly involved in the development of new web technologies.
Which is why rumors about its acquisition,
Facebook having been put forward as a buyer, were so interesting.
With Facebook behind it, Opera's path could take a very interesting turn, maybe even one for the better.
Nothing came of the rumors though and it didn't seem like Opera, at least some people at Opera, was all that interested in being acquired.
Opera cofounder Jon von Tetzchner in particular wanted to focus on long-term growth rather than an acquisition.
But he hasn't been CEO for almost three years now and hasn't been involved with the company in any way for some time. He still had over 10 percent of Opera shares though, which meant he could block any acquisition deal.
That's not the case anymore, local
reports indicate that he has sold off a significant chunk and that he now owns just 5.18 percent of the company.
That means an acquisition deal could happen, though that doesn't mean there is one.
For many companies, an acquisition is the end of the road, an acknowledgement that they went as far as they could. For some though, it means a new life. Opera could be one of those companies.
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