Chinese bid to takeover Opera fails, new bid focuses exclusively on browser

A Chinese investment consortium led by Golden Brick failed to takeover Norwegian browser maker Opera Software as regulators did not approve the $1.2 billion transaction. Now a new offer has been made, Golden Brick closed a deal with Opera's board to purchase certain elements from Opera for $600 million:

The following business units of Opera will be included in the Transaction:

Mobile Browser, including Operator Co-brand solutions

Desktop Browser

Performance and Privacy Apps

Opera's technology licensing business outside of Opera TV

Opera's 29.09% ownership in the Chinese joint venture nHorizon

The Consumer Business will be reorganized into a separate company structure. For clarity, the following businesses are not included in the Consumer Business or the Transaction:

Opera Mediaworks

Opera Apps & Games (including Bemobi)

Opera TV

The transaction is expected to take place in the second half of Q3 2016 and is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval. Golden Brick's plans for the Opera browser are unknown. While not as popular as Firefox, Chrome and IE/Edge, Opera's browser is estimated to have around 350 million users.

The Chinese takeover worries some users and concerns aggravated last week when security researchers discovered that Chinese web browser Maxthon spies on its users and phones back a worrying amount of data, including lists of all sites you visit and all search queries you make.