Opera Software, announced on Tuesday, that it has been approached by a consortium of Chinese software companies who have offered NOK 10.4 billion ($1.2 billion) to buy out 100% stake in the Norwegian browser maker.
The consortium comprises Qihoo 360 and Kunlun Tech, which are backed by investment firms, Golden Brick and Yonglian. The offer laid out on the table for Opera has met with the unanimous approval of the board members of accepting the deal. According to Gadgets 360, Opera had explained the finer details of the offer in an email. "We have received an offer on NOK 71 per share, a significant premium of 53 percent to the closing share price on February 4, and 56 percent over the last 30 trading days volume weighted average share price. The Offer also implies an attractive 2015 reported EBITDA multiple of 14.0x," said the Norwegian entity.
Opera is widely known for its browser which offers unique features for saving data and a speedy connection. While its desktop presence is quite dismal, the company has managed to stay afloat by focusing on areas like data compression and mobile advertising. Recently, to gain a competitive edge, it had also extended its data saving capacities to videos, which are the largest data guzzlers.
The company was already chalking out major restructuring plans, like carving out the Browser division and making it a separate entity. A demerger of Opera Software ASA into Opera Software AS and Opera TV AS had also been proposed by the board, which was under consideration.
However, now the Opera board is almost sold on the Chinese deal as they feel it "is the most attractive proposition for the shareholders, the Company and its employees", as per International Business Times. The browser-maker already has a strong customer base of 350 million users worldwide to which its buyers, Kunlun and Qihoo, could cross-sell their own products, apart from enjoying the benefits of the broad mobile advertising platform it has set up. At the same time, the seller itself could expand its own international exposure and acquire new users in China.
"There is strong strategic and industrial logic to the acquisition of Opera by the Consortium," Opera CEO Lars Boilesen explained, as represented in re/code. "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."
The deal is still awaiting the green signal from the company's board members, after which it will be subject to federal approvals. The company had scheduled its earnings call on Wednesday, where more details on the acquisition would follow.
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