CoolTechZone claims that Microsoft has bought Opera. “In a recent conversation with one of our insiders at Microsoft, the source revealed that Microsoft has acquired Opera Software, makers of the Opera browser. The insider reported that both Microsoft and Google were trying to bid on Opera, but in the end, the software maker took the lead. At the moment, the deal is almost through with Microsoft and Opera planning on locations for the browser’s research and development centers throughout the world.” Update: Opera has officially denied the rumours (thanks to Nemesis11).
Has anyone been able to confirm this?
I haven’t, personally, and that’s why I made it clear in the teaser it’s just a rumor (the question mark, and “claims”, you get it).
I’ll be checking out the major newssites all day today– you’ll be the first to know if it’s really real.
It’s based on Qt… so that would be strange if MS bought it. No ?
Qt has commercial licenses so I don’t see any problem if they use it
Good point, and I’m glad someone pointed that out; however, Microsoft wouldn’t use a competing product to it’s Visual Studio product line, and it wouldn’t want to promote a product which works equally well on other operating systems besides Windows. If they did buy Opera they would have to port it over to the native Windows toolkit, and that would more or less mean look at the opera code and rewrite it one piece at a time.
I think it’s safe to say that if they bought Opera it wouldn’t be for the interface.
The Opera interface is not exactly Microsoft’s typical freeware interface… It’s awfully complex and feature packed (almost too many features for me).
So they’d likely just swap out trident for opera’s engine.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Oh my god…. it’s impossible… Opera buyed by MS ???
Microsoft can’t continue with IE?? It’s the reason for purchase Opera ??
A question… Opera operates is in stock-market? How it is possible that they can “buy” Operar without a offer of sale?
I can see today Opera users migrating to Firefox for now…
Why would microsoft buy a browser company? Have they decided that patching up the old IE code base is too much work ?
It would be cool if opera can continue it’s original work and if it’s included by default in windows… finally a good default browser
.
My guess: microsoft wants it for the mobile market and they’ll kill the pc version of opera
Edited 2005-12-23 12:00
I’m sure that Bill Gates best dreams name is FireFox.
Do you mean “worse nightmare”? That might make more sense.
1. MS wants IE highly integrated in Windows
2. This rumor is just a speculation from Dvorak
3. MS won’t relay on QT
4. MS doesn’t care about cross-platform
5. Last week it was Google, this week MS, next week Coca Cola?
Exactly.
And it’s coming from CooTechZone.
If there ever was a site I wouldn’t consider a good source, then CoolTechZone has to be it.
Point 5 is interesting.
It’s interesting because sometimes that’s how you sell a company.
Wait!
Disclaimer: I don’t mean to imply that Opera is really wanting to sell.
Ok, as I was saying, sometimes one of the most effective ways of becoming “wanted” is making believe you’re already wanted. Nothing better than a rumor about a BIG leading company in your sector wanting to buy you to get other companies interested.
Of course you should promptly deny it, which serves an additional purpose: making clear that you’re still available.
A way of making it even better is simply starting not one, but two rumors. Why better? First you get two of the BIG guys (apparently) fighting for you, and second it’s far easier to deny two rumors than just one.
Rumor about Google buying Opera was met with an idea of “well, ok, Google will have something cool in mind”. That is, the rumor was easily accepted and the focus was on Google. And the denial from Opera was not as fast and clear as it was today. So what can you do? Start another rumor. That makes sure that the focus is not on Goggle or MS or whoever is buying. No, the focus is on Opera, the company everyone wants to buy.
Ok, I repeat, just in case someone didn’t get it:
I’m not saying the above is true and this is what happened. And I’m not saying Opera wants to be bought.
But it could be an explanation.
IE7 will be just as much of a dog as IE 5 and 6. It will be what they call a “maintenance release”
Still, I agree that it makes no sense for MSFT to buy Opera. They have pretty much exitted the browser wars.
Last week it was Google, this week MS, next week Coca Cola?
I can see it now, MicroSoft-Cola… freezes your kidneys up in three gulps, on the fourth your bladder explodes. Dialysis anyone? ;-p
My guess: microsoft wants it for the mobile market and they’ll kill the pc version of opera
This can be, yes… Opera recently launched Opera for mobile, but doesn’t run with JAVA? ¿?¿?
My guess is too, that if this is true, it’s all about the mobile market. Other than that, MS may also simply be interested in bringing some new faces into the Internet Explorer team.
“Opera planning on locations for the browser’s research and development centers throughout the world”
Translation: “We plan on outsourcing the software development jobs to India”
If its true, I will go back to firefox, end of story
1- MS will cease support for the Mac version of Internet Explorer from December 31 and stop development of the program
2- MS buy Opera and cease linux and non-windows versions
3- MS make IE 7 windows only
4- Profit
Google should buy Opera and Trolltech as soon as possible and make Opera and Qt as free softwares.
Google should buy Opera and Trolltech as soon as possible and make Opera and Qt as free softwares.
Qt is free software so who cares if MS buys Trolltech
Well actually I would care if MS bought Trolltech.
The open source versions are only good as long as you want to write open source software, fair enough because if you are going to make money off a product whoever makes the tools you use should also get payed. I am waiting for the day when I get good enough at programming to start writing marketable applications. That day I want to be able to choose between releasing my source code and hanging on to it, and for that I’d need to obtain the toolkit under the proper license.
Plus I think Trolltech has done a very brilliant job so far on the toolkit, I wouldn’t want to gamble on who continues development on it if the company gets bought out.
Exactly how does Microsoft make proffit on IE?
Exactly how does Microsoft make proffit on IE?
By not seeing alternative browsers make the browser a cross-platorm platform whittling away MS’ OS dominance (like Netscape intended to do).
That’s a bit of a strectch. Web apps are nowhere near ready for such a thing.
Google should buy Opera and Trolltech as soon as possible and make Opera and Qt as free softwares.
Sorry for replying to something so far back in the thread, but I am just sick and tired of hearing “someone should just buy Trolltech and be done with it”. It’s not going to happen, Qt is what it is, get used to it. Plenty of people (including Trolltech and the KDE guys) think it’s great the way it is, and those that don’t are using alternatives, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.
Back on topic, this just about ruined my day, then I read the official denial. Fantastic news about this not being terrible news, thanks Opera guys and keep up the good work.
more software for microsoft to destroy by bloating ?
Some are more easily fooled than others!
No way that Opera will sell themselves to Microsoft. That is just not going to happen, it does not fit with any of the companies roadmaps!
more trolling from John Dvorak gets spread
For those who don’t know and seem to be moderating down.
Dvorak is a paid troll who gets readers and thus cash by writing rediculously outrageous articles. This has gotten him labeled on Slashdot as the most successfull troll.
Before this hoax article about Microsoft buying Opera came out, in fact only hours before it, a Dvorak article was mentioned on Slashdot where the guy said that Microsoft should buy opera.
Links:
December 22 @ 2:40PM, Dvorak article makes it to /. :
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/22/180255&tid=109
December 23 @ 8:24AM, Opera purchase BS makes it to /. : http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/23/1329215.shtml?tid=109&tid=95&…
“No way that Opera will sell themselves to Microsoft. That is just not going to happen, it does not fit with any of the companies roadmaps!”
You mean their roadmap doesn’t include the desire to make lots of CASH? Yeah, right. You’d sell yourself to Microsoft if the money was right, let’s not kid ourselves here.
Sun Microsystems also wanted to buy Operates almost 10 years ago and they did not obtain it.
Will today obtain to it Microsoft?
I really hopes this is a bad joke…
It’s not nice to ruin Christmas with these kind of news 🙁
Wouldn’t it be more like this?
1- MS will cease support for the Mac version of Internet Explorer from December 31 and stop development of the program
2- MS buy Opera and cease linux and non-windows versions
3. MS will “fix” the little “standards compliance” problem in Opera
4- MS make IE 7 windows only
5- Profit
MS likes monopolies. I just hope it’s not true.
Opera has today like 2% of the market? Ie 80ish and FF 20ish?
If Opera would be bought by MS and they ditch the IE crap, we would suddenly have close to 100% browsers that follows actual standards. Let’s face it, the “IE is installed here so I’ll stick to that” guys wont change. The best solution would be if MS got a decent browser.
imho.
/Meng
MS is has some of the best IT engineers in the world to make IE (or any other MS product) totally standards compliant if MS wanted it to be so. IE is *deliberately* non-compliant, because MS wants everyone else to comply with the standards they set and control. This is plainly obvious with everything else they have done with the market. They will change Opera for the worst.
If true, this is the worst news I have heard for a long long time. I am going to save the latest binary and keep using it for as long as I can.
I seriously hope that the rumour is not true.
That’s funny, because IE used to be considered the most standards compliant browser out there.
Perhaps it’s not standards compliant anymore because absolutely no work was done on it for years? No, that couldn’t be it. At least, not to the mind of a troll.
dont be kidding, ff isnt 20ish… it probably just went over or around 10%… and is stated as 7.5% or something in the zdnet article. when oss lovers talk about oss, they double the facts?
CoolTechZone offered us couple of strange articles lately. I don’t think that CooltechZone is a credible source, so, as long as nobody elese confirms the fact, I will consider this untrue.
DG
Opera is to a large part employee-owned, has spent a decade battling Microsoft, and unlike the Redmond empire cares about making a great browser.
This is about an obscure net site knowing they can get increased traffic by spreading outrageous rumours. And guess what? They succeeded.
Opera is to a large part employee-owned, has spent a decade battling Microsoft, and unlike the Redmond empire cares about making a great browser.
This is about an obscure net site knowing they can get increased traffic by spreading outrageous rumours. And guess what? They succeeded.
Agreed.
Hey guess what, the site is actually slashdotted atm.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
INDEED – Its the best browser out there …. its doomsday – ****iN Microsoft – absolute 3ViL.
Opera’s fantastique & if this is true will be ruined.
The end of Opera .. man I am ctually pissed off about this.
Shouldnt be ..its just software .. but Opera is just great.
Does that mean MSft have completly given up hope on IE ?
If this is true .. then good move by Microsoft – good for their Windows Mobile stuff.
I guess that would also be the end of Opera for anything but Windows
.. where is the crying smilee when U need it ?
“I can see today Opera users migrating to Firefox for now…”
-> Only when Firefox improves speed – stability & remembers the open tabs – else : no way.
Opera is hardly the best browser.
It is inferior to 1) Firefox/Camino 2) Omniweb and 3) Safari. Opera is about number 4
Opera is hardly the best browser.
It is inferior to 1) Firefox/Camino 2) Omniweb and 3) Safari. Opera is about number 4
Where did you pull this out of?
I’ve tried them all.
“I’ve tried them all.”
So did I, which is why I am on Opera. Try each again and try paying more attention to your system memory usage statistics rather than the pretty icons next time.
from his a$$.
Well if this is true it’s clear that MS only bid to keep Opera out of Google’s hands. In case you haven’t noticed Google is number 1 on the MS (s)hitlist, their trying to buy a browser would set of all kinds of alerts in Redmond.
Look at the areas they already compete in :
Google Search <-> MSN Search
Google Maps <-> Whatever that MS map thing is called
Gmail <-> Hotmail
Google Talk <-> MSN Messenger
It would be a pretty agressive move by Google, but they have been rumered to go into the browser business for a long time so you never know.
If you actually check the IE blog, you can understand some of the philosophies behind Microsoft’s decisions.
One of these is that retro-compatibility is very important. That’s why they have decided to make certain changes but not others in IE7. Even that will cause problems to a few websites but I guess they reckon that is below their treshold of “acceptability”
This said, there is NO WAY that MS will change IE for Opera. And it’s not a random guess, it’s just a logical conclusion from the IE blog.
On the other hand what people have said about the mobile market makes lots of sense, so that could actually be their target (if this rumor is true at all, of course).
Maybe this story can be true. Opera would be bougth not for use in PC as IE alternative but to be used in mobile devices like PDAs and mobile phones.
Remember that linux is becoming the platform for some mobile phone companies (see http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6019885702.html ) and Opera is being used as browser for many of these projects. MS can be buying Opera to make it windows CE-only and to f*** linux mobile phones.
with ie7 almost finished, and the fact that opera is highly tied into qt, the only reason i can see for ms buying opera is to shut it down, leaving only firefox as their competition.
But you see, what I guess you don’t understand is, there really is no competition.
What are they competing for? Certainly not proffit, as none of them make any money off of the browser.
I wanted to say that Google should buy Trolltech and make Qt free software but with a BSD or MIT license and end the restrictions of some people to Qt.
Has anyone else noticed a lot of legit comments with negative scores following this article? I’ve done my part to bring them back up, but it looks like someone got bored waiting for Christmas.
Whether we agree with comments or not, last time I checked, was no grounds for moderating them down. They had to be rude or offensive as I recall.
f–k! Now no more Opera for Linux and FreeBSD.
Guess I’ve just gotta readapt to that horrible memory-leak machine called Firefox…
It’s entirely possible that IE has been dumped for Opera’s codebase. They were talking about dropping IE in the past anyway, for MSN Explorer. IE hasn’t been really updated for years. I get the impression that IE was built in the fastest, messiest way possible, just to catch up with Netscape, and after that it was too difficult to maintain.
The rumour is just made up from a 16-yr old, I know him. Got to laugh @ u guys.
It’s still possible that MS would buy it just to stop Google buying it and opening up its code. Opera would really kick IE’s butt, much more than firefox has, if the UI was tidied up a bit, ads were removed, and it had the word-of-mouth backing and development support of the Free Software world.
ads were removed
That already happened a few months ago.
There’s also Konqueror ;-), quite the nice browser, and with apple helping it it’s getting better faster.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39243639,0…
Also see Slashdot article:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/23/1329215&tid=109&tid=95&…
If you didn’t want this to happen, you should have been using Free Software in the first place, since it guarantees your freedom. That’s the whole point.
Qt is already Free Software. In fact, it’s more free now than GTK is.
In fact, it’s more free now than GTK is.
I don’t agree with this, but I won’t say it’s the other way around either.
The free version of QT is, if I remember correctly, GPL. This means that you can only use it if you make your *whole* program GPL.
GTK is available under the LGPL, which implies you can link it to your own closed-source application provided you make the source of GTK available, including any changes you had to make to it.
So one version (GPL) gives more freedom to the end users because they get all the sources, the other one (LGPL) gives more freedom to individual developers because they can use a library and still have a choice to make the rest of their application open source or not. Much like the difference between GPL and BSD licenses.
So in my opinion they’re both equally free, but with a difference in emphasis which group gets the most freedom.
Opera would be a good acquisition for anyone interested in getting one if not the only real good browser on mobile device ( cellphone ).
Opera as a desktop browser is not really interesting , Firefox , Safari , Konqueror are all viable replacement.
Microsoft might make this acquisition to say they offer two browser already on there desktop as default and then be able to argue that they dont need to install more choice in the Monopoly cases.
Until its written on Opera.com or from a trusted source …
Guess what, Opera already spread that this is not going to happen.
God bless these guys and protect us
Opera is NOT based on Qt. Opera 6 was, but Opera 7 has a new cross platform UI which does not use Qt.
Opera for Unix uses Qt for certain system dialogs and such, but that’s it. Opera for Mac and Windows does NOT use Qt AT ALL.
Just curious. What UI Opera uses for windows and Mac?
There’s a rumour that Microsoft has bought Opera software, makers of the (closed source) fast, cross-platform and lightweight Opera web browser, Opera mobile (Symbian S60, Windows mobile) and the recently released Opera mini (for Java phones).
It’s not hard to understand why Microsoft would be interested. Opera is very standards compliant, more so than IE6 (and IE7 perhaps). Opera is obviously very well engineered, with a very fast renderer and extremely low memory footprint. Most importantly, Opera runs on platforms that Microsoft wants to reach out to and (in the end) dominate or conquer.
Such platforms are Symbian OS (in different series), a common OS for mobile phones. Opera rules that territory today.
Such platforms are Maemo (you’ve heard about Nokia 770, haven’t you?), the exciting new open platform that Nokia puts work into, based on the Linux-kernel, X11 and GTK+, to name some open source technologies. Opera rules that territory today.
Such platforms are desktop Linux… [continued]
I blogged some babblings about this, due to some verbose-mode enabled in my head it’s to long to paste here, come visit:
http://fancy.se/arkiv/2005/12/23/bass-was-tenor/
, if you want it all or skip it if you’ve got better thing to do
Well, I hope to heck this is only a crazy Christmas rumour. John C. Dvorak was raving about it yesterday so it was easy to write off as a fantasy. But maybe not.
I like and use Opera a great deal – I am typing this on it (on SuSE). If Microsoft get their hands on Opera, then chances are goodbye to a Linux edition or at least goodbye to a fast, stable, up-to-date and free Linux edition.
Microsoft’s entry into any market seems to mean higher prices, lower standards, less innovation and deliberately borked integration with anything that isn’t fully Microsoft. So, are mobile phones and embedded next for the Microsoft treatment then? Maybe time to stock up on pencils, paper and carrier pigeons.
The only place that MS would be smart to but Opera is for mobile browsing. Opera works surprisingly well on very small displays where Internet Explorer sucks and the Mozilla based browser (minimo) kind of sucks.
Gotta love rumors…
Microsoft Behind $12 million payment to Opera
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+behind+$12+million+payment+to+Opera/2…
Not what you think. MS would make their MSN sites purposefully send mangled pages to Opera. This happened a while back.
Microsoft obviously sees Opera as a threat and still refuses to play fair.
Opera’s mobile/ hand-held, in-flight market is where the big numbers are. They are really growing year-on-year.
If Opera’s CEO, and vocal pro-standards employee Hakon Lie let this happen:
http://people.opera.com/howcome/
then I would have personally lost ALL FAITH in the ‘new’ Opera controlled by Microsoft and never use or buy a product based on their technology.
I hope the hell not. Opera is the best browser ever. MS would just ruin it. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Die Bill!! Die!
About ten years ago there was a really good database called FoxPro, or something like that. It was really killing Access in the Medium/Small business arena. Guess what, Microsoft bought FoxPro, gutted it for ideas, and improved Access with what they learned. FoxPro died soon after. You could still get it, but it wasn’t as good as Access after that. On purpose.
Although the rumors are denied, it wouldn’t surprise me. Any company would love the chance to beat the competition, even if it means buying it out of business.
rumours denied : < big sigh of relief >
GO OPERA 
But you see, what I guess you don’t understand is, there really is no competition.
What are they competing for? Certainly not proffit, as none of them make any money off of the browser
———–
Opera and Mozilla all make money through deals with Google, Yahoo, Ebay and others in their browser. Opera also make big money having their browser on millions of mobile devices each year and currently cite Opera Mobile as having enormous potential for revenue growth in the next five years through marketing tie-ins with their partners.
IE and its “custom-ness” make IE tied to Windows. Windows is a product you pay for. IE comes with it. It isn’t multi-platform like Mozilla and Opera. It is currently Windows only. Mac version – abandoned.
Many companies are tied to Windows and IE ’cause web applications they’ve built rely on IE-centric features.
This keeps them locked to the Windows platform – a paid-for product. IE is of strategic importance to keep people on Windows and controlling new internet standards (or non-standards, whatever the case may be), through Microsoft’s sheer installed base (again, leveraging the Windows monopoly to dominiate newer markets).
correction to the above:
When I said Opera Mobile I meant “Opera Mini for Mobile”
Let them buy… so svg gets around faster.
Opera is my browser of choice. I think I see shades of Netscape on the horizon. Well I can look for another browser after Microsoft screws it up and finally kills it so it can’t compete against that wonder of all browsers, IE, yuk,erp,choke,snot,gag,snort,puke, etc………..
That’s all that it. Shame on him!
MS just can’t kill competitors at this point because the MoFo can’t be bought and killed.
We count down until the next rumor of some large company buying Opera.
Sorry folks, but Opera does not want to be bought. Unless they start losing a lot of money and are near bankruptcy, the CEO refuses to be bought out, as it would ruin their vision of Opera.
“the CEO refuses to be bought out, as it would ruin their vision of Opera.”
You talk as though this guy is your golf buddy or something…
I talk as though this is what he has said repeatedly, especially after the other rumors of them being bought out.
Sorry folks, but Opera does not want to be bought. Unless they start losing a lot of money and are near bankruptcy, the CEO refuses to be bought out, as it would ruin their vision of Opera.
Everything is for sale at the end of the day. It just requires the right buyer, a buyer for example with the same vision as the present CEO of Opera. Maybe the right buyer hasn’t arrived yet, and maybe he won’t arrive for years to come, but one day he will.
While Microsoft could admittedly buy Opera with spare change in the middle drawer, it would have to figure out what to do with two desktop browsers, after the integration period of 6-12 months is up.
1) Continue to offer both browsers, except maybe Opera gets withdrawn from non-Windows platforms.
2) Merge the two browsers into one effort, let’s call it Opera Explorer.
Strategy #1 runs counter to their W3C-embrace-and-extend approach of presenting IE as the de facto standard for all sites. It would confuse the heck out of corporate customers and web developers. It might also greatly increase the viability of Opera’s browser, which might create a big opening for Firefox or other browsers on the Windows platform.
Strategy #2 would create political bloodbaths in Redmond and Oslo. There would be a struggle to be the controlling site and mass exodus from both teams, and the headaches of coordinating large scale development across a language, cultural, and 8-hour time zone difference. Now, chances are the Norway folks would lose because Microsoft wants to keep the most strategic platform development centralized on the Redmond campus, and because IE compatibility is an absolute requirement. But this would also send an unsubtle message that the brass doesn’t think much of the IE team and its current product.
And this is assuming the purchase would pass antitrust muster by both the US DOJ and EU, and it might not, perhaps without substantial concessions such as an agreement to release the current Opera code as open source.
Google would have some of the same problems, though not as many because they’re only a contributor to Firefox and not the owner. I predict they’ll make an investment or some other deal with Opera without buying the company, just to help keep them afloat, while pushing hard on Firefox as their main browser.
Paul G
In my Opinion Opera is hands down the best browser around and a large part of that is due to the feature rich, elegant and customisable UI.
Even if Microsoft by some miracle managed to release a MS Opera without bloating it they would be sure to dumb down and mess up the UI. I imagine all the things that make Opera a fantastic browser would be gone by the time MS was through with it. If nothing else the Mac and Linux versions wouldn’t last long if MS were in control.
I’m relieved that it’s just a rumour as Opera just keeps getting better and better.
So, we cant do nothing when money talks…
(Explorer+OPera)= obviously better than FireFox…
Not everyone is for sale. Some people hold their principles in higher esteem than their money. These comments show more about you than anyone else.
These kind of people you talk about never become businessmen and if they do they end up bankrupt.
“Not everyone is for sale. Some people hold their principles in higher esteem than their money. These comments show more about you than anyone else.”
This isn’t the case with businesses. These are simply business decisions, not matters of principle. What kind of principle would be involved in the business of purchasing a company?
We’re not talking about a personal sellout on a matter of ethics – this is how business works.
As the previous poster mentioned, this kind of mindset is not held by the business world – only idealists not in the game.
As the previous poster mentioned, this kind of mindset is not held by the business world – only idealists not in the game.
With great respect, this is total crap.
Hmmm, MS is ending support for IE for Mac, dec 30th & this is happening. Anyone thinking MS wants to still have a Mac browser?
I bet Microsoft is buying Opera so that the browser can be coupled with Microsoft’s *other* operating system, Singularity. 🙂
Windows w/Internet Explorer
Singularity w/Opera
–EyeAm