Slashdot Mirror
Opera Browser Creators Planning IPO
Iphtashu Fitz writes "Norwegian web browser developer Opera Software is reportedly planning an Initial Public Offering on the Oslo Stock Exchange next month. According to a press release issued today, Opera's revenue for the last quarter grew 108.7% and CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner stated that 'After developing and refining the technology and commercial side for nine years, Opera Software is now ready for public listing.' Opera has, according to CNET News, gained popularity in the past few months thanks, in part, to having ported their well-known browser to smartphones."
Frankly, I'll keep my money in safer places....
So, I would assume, Google. Also factor in the demand factor for the shares, expectation of being the next Netscape, etc.,
Will be interesting to see how Opera performs as a public company
Join moola.com, play games to earn money.
For what it's worth, I've been using Opera exclusively since version 3.something in 1998. When they switched to ads, I used a cracked version for a couple months, but then regged it after the guilt got to me. Considering that (excluding operating systems) I use this piece of software more than any other, I probably owed them a lot more than it cost. Though I must admit that I'm the only person I know who gave them any money, and I know about a half dozen other people who use it regularly. I assume most of their revenue comes from licensing deals w/ mobile phone makers.
If you're willing to learn the interface and customize it to your liking, there's no doubt in my mind that there's nothing faster. Most importantly, you can use it with either the mouse OR the keyboard without any loss of efficiency. From my experiences, most other browsers have functions that can only be done with one or the other.
just my $.02
That's the only reason I can think of for why they would be going public. When you are public, one of the big rules is get as much money as you can when you have the chance. Right when you cross over to break-even is that chance. Before break-even is silly (we've been through that bubble and are not buying it anymore) and if you leave it too long you might dip below break-even again which would tarnish your image (from the investment point of view).
In my opinion, going public is both the best and the worst thing that can happen to a company, from the employee perspective. I've worked for a private company, a public company, and a private company that went public. In a public company you can make a lot of money off your stock options (assuming you have some). But the atmosphere in a private company is much more agreeable, with the lines of communications much more open. When my last company went public, it was like a door slammed and all information about how the company was doing, and what potential customers we were talking to, disappeared. We essentially woke up after the party, feeling rich, and realized nobody would talk to us anymore.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
FUD.
There has been a single handful of security issues in the past years, which were either solved with a fixed build even before the vulnerability was made public, or at most a few days later.
There are currently no open vulnerabilities.
In what sense is this 'worse than IE'?
If you don't like having choices made for you, you should start making your own. - Neal Stephenson
How about you use what YOU like. I have used both Opera and Mozilla and I decided to use Mozilla because I liked it's interface. Just because Mozilla is OSS does not mean it is better. (Go ahead and troll me :)