Opera: re-quotes the competing Internet Explorer browser

Opera Browser Ltd first appeared in the '90s, when PCs still used Windows 95 and Steve Jobs ran Next Computer Inc. . after being fired from Apple, and now he is coming back to the market.

It is expected that Opera will debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market next Friday after possibly selling US $ 115 million shares. The company based in Oslo, Norway, will carry 9.6 million shares at 12 US dollars each, the top of a planned group, according to people with knowledge of the subject.

Opera was created by two Norwegian engineers Telenor ASA Jon von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsoy. The first major browser version for Windows from Microsoft Corp. was Opera 2.1, released in 1997.

Netscape Navigator – predecessor of Mozilla Firefox – was the winner of the first browser battle, while Internet Explorer was waiting patiently his luck before becoming so dominant decade after that led to the intervention of regulators.

Opera acquired a series of sects users, who scorned the market leaders and who helped cement their place as the third most popular browser in the world at the moment .

Up to March 31, Opera reported a net profit of US $ 6.6 million based on revenues of US $ 39.4 million which increased by about $ 55 million. % compared to the same period. quarter of last year. It also meant an important mark in his return to public life. The company began trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2004, raising some 20 million US dollars. Two years later, he launched Opera Mini a mobile browser that allows customers to explore real size websites through the limited cellular data networks that existed at that time.

Browser Wars "was between Internet Explorer, Firefox and a start Google Chrome by the end of the decade, the future of Opera changed course Ivarsoy died in 2006 and von Tetzchner left the Company in 2011 after disagreeing with investors about the direction of the company.

Opera currently generates more than 50% of its revenue through its partnership with Google Alphabet Inc. and Yandex NV based in Moscow,

"I think that initially they only wanted to sell the company," said von Tetzchner in an interview. "In that the investors were focused. They have always believed that they could get better returns this way. "

A purchase of the controlling stake of $ 1 billion by a consortium of Chinese investors was planned for 2016, but the operation did not obtain government approval and The company, by contrast, has agreed to sell only its browser – now called Opera Ltd. – for US $ 575 million, which will be listed on the Nasdaq on Friday.

The rest of the original company was renamed Otello Corporation ASA in 2017 and continues to quote in Oslo.