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."

Comments

Re:I wonder which

[TiMac]

Why wonder? Everyone and their mother uses Google...a small fraction of the world uses Opera. I'm all about rooting for the little guy (Opera) vs the giant (Microsoft), but there are so many other alternatives out there for various platforms (such as Firefox, Galeon, Safari, OmniWeb, etc) that I can't see a company based around a browser succeeding in going public.

Frankly, I'll keep my money in safer places....

Re:I wonder which

[aacool]

Opera's revenue is about a third of Google's last quarter. Google's ad-words program ensures revenue. Not sure how Opera can ensure sustained revenue for a freeware browser that has a low share of the browser market(????)

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

Re:Opera

[Gregory S Patterson]

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

FUD

[Rits]

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'?