The consortium making the bid is Golden Brick, a group comprised of Qihoo 360, one of China’s most visible (and controversial) Internet companies which recently went private in a .3 billion deal, and newly-listed games firm Kunlun, which last month snapped up a majority 60 percent share in gay dating service Grindr.
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The offer represents a 56% premium to Opera’s 30-day average share price, and a 46% premium to its 90-day average share price to 4 February. Well, Recode says its board is “unanimously recommending shareholders [to] approve the takeover”.
The agreement, which is said to have an acquisition amount of $1.2 billion, will allow the Norway-based company to gain access to the extensive user base of the companies as well as financing support options for the company’s growth potential.
Opera in 2014 acquired the U.S.-based mobile video advertising AdColony in a deal that gave advertisers and publishers a combined reach of more than 700 million consumers. Moreover, the offer comes as a result of the structured process that was aimed to explore various strategic opportunities after missing the revenue forecasts in August previous year. Under its excellent management team, Opera has made remarkable achievements in recent years in the fields of mobile browser and mobile advertising, said Yahui Zhou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kunlun.
Opera’s acquisition is part of a complex of deals being done by the Chinese buyers seeking to join forces in their home market, which is dominated by giant rivals such as Alibaba and Tencent.
Opera is best known for its browser, but has also focused on other areas, including data compression and advertising.
“There is strong strategic and industrial logic to the acquisition of Opera by the Consortium”, said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera.
The Norwegian company predicted on Wednesday its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation would amount to $100-125 million in 2016 on revenue of $690-740 million.
Opera Software develops and sells web browsers for the desktop, device, and mobile markets worldwide.
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The main impact of the planned buyout is likely to be felt in China, as Kunlun and Qihoo roll out products that use Opera’s technology there.
