Chinese investors bid $1.2B for Norwegian tech firm Opera

It received the acquisition offer from Kunlun Tech and Qihoo 360, backed by Golden Brick Silk Road and Yonglian investment firms. It made an offer to buy 100% of Opera at 10.3 Billion Norwegian Kroner ($1.2B), a 53% premium over the closing price of Opera’s stock as of February 4th. Opera also revealed that its board is unanimously in favor of the takeover. In addition, the members of the executive team and the Board holding shares have entered into pre-acceptances to accept the Offer with respect to their shareholdings in Opera.

The agreement, which is said to have an acquisition amount of $1.2 billion, will allow the Norway-based company to gain access to the extensive user base of the companies as well as financing support options for the company’s growth potential.

Opera said last August that it was evaluating offers from external investors after it opened a strategic review into its future options.

The company also made one of the first true mobile browsers, which was one of the best in the early days of Android.

Opera’s acquisition is part of a complex of deals being done by the Chinese buyers seeking to join forces in their home market, which is dominated by giant rivals such as Alibaba and Tencent. “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”.

Its browser division now specialises in compressing data to minimise download times and costs for subscribers, especially when watching video, making it particularly popular in emerging market economies where network bandwidth can be constrained.

Opera claims that its user base now boasts 350 million users, covering both mobile and desktop devices. That’s equivalent to 60% of the value of all such deals previous year, according to Dealogic.

Of that total revenue, mobile advertising products accounted for $145.4 million. If more than a third of Opera’s shares are tendered but less than 90%, the consortium will launch a mandatory offer for the remaining shares. It would help the Norwegian company expand its presence in China as well as enhance its advertising business through online game publisher Kulun and internet giant Qihoo.