Otello Corporation

Assets

The headquarters is located in Oslo.

By December 18, 2017 after sale of key assets to Chinese, at the disposal of Otello there are an advertizing, application development and games and also the business connected with the Skyfire companies purchased earlier (offers technology of compression of video traffic).

It is noted that by this time the advertizing network AdColony, offers monetization of applications through watching full-screen advertizing videos, brings Otello less income that is reflected in financial performance of all company.

Management

• Jon von Tetzchner  — after foundation of Opera Software Jon Von Tetzchner headed the company from 1995 to 2010. In 2011 left the company.

• Lars Boilesen - since the beginning of the 2010th the CEO of Opera and after Otello Corporation.

History and performance indicators

2017: Renaming of the company into Otello Corporation

On December 18, 2017 it was announced renaming of the Norwegian company Opera Software. Rebranding happened after the mass sale of assets.

Instead of Opera Software the company began to be called Otello Corporation. Besides, the software developer will replace a ticker at the exchange in Oslo: instead of OPERA other designation will be used. What, did not select yet.

It is noted that change of the company name will not affect its activity and also on browsers Opera and Opera Mini which were sold to the Chinese consortium in 2016.

Opera Software was renamed into Otello

In addition to browser business, Otello in 2016-2017 sold the assets connected with the software for broadcast of a TV content and VPN- service SurfEasy.

According to the CEO of Otello Lars Boilesen, the company focused on development of the remained business directions. At the same time he allowed sales opportunity of assets in the future if "the good offer arrives".

However now the main attention is paid to development of the companies and creation of joint-stock value — Boylsen said.

Desire to save business which remained with the company after the mass sale of assets partly is confirmed by redemption of stocks of the company. So, in September, 2017 55 thousand securities at the average price of 24.6 Norwegian kroner apiece were purchased. At that time Opera had 6.43 million own actions.^[1]

2016

Closing of office in Russia

On November 20, 2016 it became known of closing of the Russian representative office of Opera Software. This solution turned out to be consequence of reorientation of the company from corporate on mass market.

The representative of Opera Karin Grev Isdal told about the solution to close office in the Russian Federation to Vedomosti. According to her, revenue of the company on the corporate sector decreases, and Opera considered the Russian office more unnecessary at reorientation of the company to consumer products.

Opera decided to close the Russian representative office because of reorientation of the company from corporate on mass market.

As the representative of Opera Mikhail Zaytsev reported the edition, by November 20, 2016 in the Russian division of the company no more than 10 people work. Zaytsev will leave the company on November 30. The employee of Opera connected closing of office with fall of income and change of geographical priorities of the company from the markets of developing countries which distract resources, to the developed markets.

According to Vedomosti, annual revenues of Opera are measured in the Russian Federation less than $10 million that there is three times less indicator of 2012. Also Opera Mini share in the Russian market of mobile browsers decreases though the version for computers showed small rise, Zaytsev claims.

He also reported that income of Opera in Russia generated three directions: the company sold to the Russian clients an advertizing space in the browser, preset the browser on mobile devices and earned from telecom operators, showing to the users content from their operators.^[2]

Meanwhile, the Kommersant newspaper in number of November 21, 2016 wrote that Roskomnadzor suggested Opera to begin voluntary filtering of resources. According to the edition, during the meeting of technical specialists of Roskomnadzor with representatives of the company which took place in an early autumn of 2016 the possibility of access restriction to the websites banned in the Russian Federation at the blocking bypass mode included in the browser was discussed.^[3]

Renewal of the transaction on sale of browser business to Chinese

On July 18, 2016 it became known of failure of the transaction on sale to the Norwegian company Opera Software to group of the Chinese investors. At the same time the parties signed other agreement.

In February, 2016 the consortium led by Golden Brick Silk Road investment fund and with the assistance of the Chinese Internet companies Kunlun and Qihoo offered for purchase of Opera 10.5 billion kroner (about $1.2 billion) or 71 krone counting on one action. At that time it was 53% more than the market value of securities of software producer.

To Chinese prohibited to buy Opera

In May the transaction was approved by shareholders of Opera, and the solution of regulating authorities was the final stage. The last did not agree, the Reuters news agency reports. The cause of failure does not reveal. In Opera only noted that "conditions of closing of the transaction were not satisfied by July 15 in time".^[4]

At the same time Opera agreed with the same consortium about sale of a part of the consumer business including the direction of development of browsers for mobile devices and desktop computers, productivity applications and safety of web observers to it. Besides, the 29 percent share of Opera in the Chinese developer of the nHorizon browsers will be sold.

Opera will retain assets (application development, games, etc.) which in the amount will generate the companies annual revenue in the amount of $570-605 million, Bloomberg notes.

The cost of the transaction within which Opera sells to the Chinese partners the browser business will be $600 million. This transaction also needs approval of regulators.

On July 15, 2016, when Opera announced plans to sound results of the transaction on sale to the company of the 18th, stocks of the Norwegian vendor dropped by 1.6%, up to 60 kroner that is 11 kroner less, than offered the Chinese consortium for Opera. By July 15 market capitalization of Opera made 8.8 billion kroner (about $1 billion).

The declaration of sale to Chinese for $1.2 billion

On February 10, 2016 it became known of the preparing sale of Opera to group of the Chinese investors who estimated the developer of browsers more than at $1 billion.

According to The Financial Times, the consortium led by the Chinese investment fund Golden Brick Silk Road offered owners of Opera about 10.5 billion kroner ($1.2 billion) or 71 krone on one stock of the Norwegian company that is 53% more than the cost of securities at the time of closing of the exchange on February 4, 2016 — on the eve of emergence of rumors about the preparing sale of Opera.

The consortium of buyers also included the developer of the games Beijing Kunlun Tech, the producer of the antivirus software Qihoo 360 Technology and Yonglian Investment investment firm.

The Board of Directors of Opera unanimously approved the offer of consortium and intends to recommend to shareholders to make the same. Besides, the transaction was supported by the investors owning about 33% of stocks of Opera and representatives of leadership team.

The group of the Chinese companies agreed about acquisition of the developer of the Opera browsers

Acquisition of Opera by consortium very logically in terms of strategy and development of the industry. We are sure that the consortium with the wealth of experience and strong position in emerging markets will become the strong owner of Opera — the head of the Norwegian company Lars Boilesen says. — Transition to the property of consortium will strengthen possibilities of Opera on providing to users and partners even more developed innovations and also will accelerate our plans for expansion and growth.

In Opera also consider that sale to the company to the Chinese investors will open for it access to Internet audience of Kunlun and Qihoo in China and will provide an additional financial support.

According to analysts of Pareto Securities, the offer of consortium is really very attractive to Opera, considering that experts set the target share value of the company at the level of 63 kroner apiece and expect from it much larger income in 2016 in comparison with what is predicted by Opera.

In 2015 the quotations of Opera failed for 47%, but at the beginning of February of the 2016th they jumped up against the background of rumors about sale to the company. On February 10, when it was announced the proposal of the Chinese investors, securities of Opera rose in price for 41%, and market capitalization — to 10 billion kroner ($1.17 billion).^[5]

The largest IT company of Norway

Data for 2018

2015: Opera optimizes expenses and dismisses employees

On April 21, 2015 it became known of dismissal of 70 employees of Opera Software company. The reason - falling of total revenue in the Russian^[6].

On April 20, 2015 Opera Software dismissed about 70 employees from divisions worldwide, Dagens Næringsliv with reference to representatives of the company reported. Unsatisfactory indicators on revenue, in particular in the Russian market, became the reason for dismissals.

In total Opera Software will be left by 5% of employees. Total number of employees of the company about 1.5 thousand people.

In March, 2015 Opera published plans of the company for 2015. The forecast for revenue of the company is reduced from $670 million to $640 million, expectations of operating profit are lowered for $40-50 million in comparison with initial forecasts - to $130-140 million Dagens Næringsliv referring to a research of Morgan Stanley noted - falling happened because of weakening of ruble exchange rate at the end of 2014.

In the world a total share of Opera and Opera Mobile according to StatCounter about 1.7%. In Russia it is much higher, according to information of OpenStat - about 14.5% of the market.

2014: Growth of revenue by 60%

In 2014 revenue of Opera made $480.8 million against $300.1 million and $216 million year and two years earlier respectively. In 2014 the most part of income — 57% — the companies was brought by publishers of mobile applications and advertisers. Revenue share from cooperation with mobile operators made 14%. Users of desktop and mobile versions of the Opera browsers provided the companies of 13% and 11% of revenue respectively.

2011

Russia and Ukraine - leaders in number of users of the desktop Opera browser

2011 became for Opera Software company one of the most successful both on growth of audience of browsers, and on expansion of a partner network in the CIS. The number of users of the desktop Opera browser in the region in 2011 grew by 25%; more than 100 million people at least once used Opera Mini on the mobile devices. Thanks to partners over 12 million customized copies of Opera for computers, smartphones, mobile phones and tablet PCs were distributed in the CIS.

By the end of 2011 the number of users of the Opera Mini browser around the world exceeded 144 million a month. Russia and Ukraine enter in regions Top-10 on number of users – in a year in their these countries also 103% respectively became 41% more (data for November, 2011).

Based on Opera Mini in 2011 over 5 million subscribers of mobile operators of the CIS used packets of the unlimited Internet. Special rates offered Russian "NTK", "MOTIVE" and "AKOS", Kazakhstan Kcell and the Azerbaijani Bakcell. In addition, providers of cellular communication aim to provide to the subscribers the customized versions of Opera Mini and Opera Mobile with the preset Express panel cells. In addition to the specified companies, the development contract of such versions was also signed with the Armenian VivaCell-MTS.

Within mobile browsers in the CIS Opera cooperates both with Google, and with Yandex providing quick access to search technologies from a window of the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. In 2011 for Yandex the customized versions of these browsers focused on smartphones based on Android were also released.

Since July, 2011 Opera Mini is included in the delivery of a number of Android smartphones Sony Ericsson. I-Free and United Fun Traders companies also promoted the browser.

In 2011 Russia and Ukraine became leaders in number of users of the desktop Opera browser on a global scale. The audience in these countries in the expiring year increased, respectively, by 22.6% and 13.2%.

Demand for the expansions for the browser announced in December, 2010 grew even more, than it was expected. At the end of 2011 users from around the world loaded over 5.5 million expansions a month. At the same time, visitors from Russia and Ukraine come into the addons.opera.com directory most often – it is the share of them according to 35.2% and 14.9% of viewings (traffic from around the world was considered). Two the most popular today expansions for Opera are created by the Russian web developer – Gismeteo and VKontakte.

In 2011 also the number of the partners of Opera promoting the services using the browser grew up. To number of the companies whose references are placed in the Express panel by default, Booking.com and Groupon services (in Russia), TUT.BY and Kufar.by (in Belarus), were added by Price.ua, Aukro.ua and Emarket.ua (in Ukraine). Besides, cooperation of Opera with Mail.Ru Group and Yandex continues. The last since 2011 extends special assembly of Opera for the PC "with taste of Yandex".

Opera Turbo use – technologies of a compression of traffic – for providing to users of 3G-modems of unlimited access to web pages from notebooks, netbooks and, in some cases, desktop PCs became a new trend of 2011. The packets of unlimited access based on Opera Turbo use in 2011 were for the first time offered subscribers of the Central branch "MegaFon" and also clients Beeline in a number of regions of Russia.

The contract of Opera with IMAQLIQ signed in 2011 – the Russian developer of prefixes for IPTV became the CIS, sign for the market. On its conditions IMAQLIQ uses the Opera platform for access to Network in the line of devices for digital interactive IPTV.

"Opera technologies for Internet access can be used practically in any device having the user interface and a connectivity to Network. Promotion of the platform of web access for TVs and Set-top boxes is one of priority tasks for Opera as on a global scale, and in our region, - Ilyin Mikhail, the general manager of Opera Software in the CIS comments. – However, we are not going to disregard mobile and desktop browsers, and next year we will announce new partners".

The co-founder of Opera Jon von Tetzchner leaves the company

In June, 2011 it became known that the co-founder and the former chief executive of the Norwegian Opera Software Jon von Tetzchner leaves the company.

"At the beginning we represented a tiny command at small office. Now activity of Opera covers the whole world. In the company more than 740 employees work, and the number of users of our products exceeds 200 million people. I am incredibly proud of what we managed to reach, and I am going to be near the company in the future", - von Tetschner said in the open letter, having added that the solution to leave the company came to it not easily.

"Tell that Techner created the great company, so not to tell anything", - the current chief executive of Opera Software Lars Boilesen added. He noted that Techner selected the innovation way of development and accurately adhered to it, adding to the web browsers one new feature for another while others only copied innovations.

Meanwhile, Techner sent to employees of Opera the letter with other contents, than in the open message. Its copy was at disposal of the edition of TechCrunch. Here what is written by the former director: "It is sad to me to send this message. The next week will become my the last in Opera. It became obvious that Board of Directors, the management and I do not separate the same values and we have different views on how to continue development of Opera. Therefore we with Board of Directors decided that I will leave".

It seems that Techner does not separate the aspirations of the management of Opera to concentrate on generation of profit. "I always worked to create the strong company with big perspectives in the future, - he shares. - The management is more, than I, quarter results concern".

Techner resigned the authority on June 30, 2011. Where he is going to work further, was not reported. But it is known that he has some ideas concerning new projects which he is not ready to discuss yet.

In spite of the fact that Techner's leaving in general became surprise for the market, it could be expected, and change of the head in 2010 became the first step. Whereas Techner was an engineer in soul, Boylsen who replaced it - "sales manager". Since Boylsen's arrival the share of the Opera web browser in the world market changed slightly - from 2.2% in January, 2010 it grew to 2.4% in May, 2011. The company considerably loses Google Chrome which for the same period could increase a share approximately by 2.5 times - from 10.8% to 25.9%. However financial affairs went better. For example, in the I quarter 2011 the profit of Opera grew by 661% in comparison with the same period of 2010 to 41.4 million Norwegian kroner (about $7.5 million).

2010: Boylsen replaced Techner at the head of the company

At the beginning of 2010 Jon von Tetzchner gave duties to Lars Boylsen, having reported that this solution became "a result of long reflections". After that Tetzchner became the consultant of Opera for strategic questions, having continued work in the company on a complete rate.

1995: The staff of Telenor redeems the Opera browser from the company

The Opera company was founded by Jón Techner together with the colleague Geir Ivarsoy in 1995 after they redeemed the right to own project of the web browser developed within telephone company Telenor. Ivarsyoy died in 2006. Von Tetschner became the chief executive officer of Opera, on this post he remained till 2010.

Notes