Opera sells browser business to Chinese consortium for $600m

Deal comes days after $1.2bn takeover fell through

Web browser pioneer Opera has agreed a deal to sell its core consumer technology to a Chinese consortium for $600m - half the price of the deal it agree earlier this year with the same group, which fell through only last week.

Opera is selling its name, the mobile and desktop browser businesses and its privacy and performance applications. These include the SurfEasy virtual private network (VPN) offering that is now built in to the Opera browser, which the firm acquired in March 2015.

Opera will retain the Opera TV, Opera Mediaworks and Opera Apps & Games units that generated combined profits of $74m on revenues of $467m in 2015, according to the company.

The Chinese consortium includes Qihoo 360, a Chinese antivirus software company that was accused of gaming anti-malware tests and stripped of its rankings last year, and a number of Chinese fund managers and private equity funds, including Golden Brick Capital.

Opera CEO Lars Boilsen will continue in the role until the end of the year, when he will become sole CEO of the remaining business.

The consortium will be obliged to pay $100m as a termination fee to Opera if it is unable to complete the deal, although it is unclear how that might be enforced should it happen.

Opera's 2013 decision to shift its core browser technology to Chromium lost the company a lot of its loyal users, as the new browser lacks many of the features on which users had come to rely.

It would also seem that the company's acquisition of Canada's SurfEasy VPN service hasn't generated the anticipated subscription revenues.

Many of Opera's users have shifted to rivals following the botched technology transition, while Vivaldi, the web browser established by Opera founder Jon von Tetzchner, came out of beta earlier this year and includes many of the features Opera dumped in 2013.

The company has fared more successfully in niche markets, including lightweight browsers for mobile devices and set-top boxes. Its browser technology is also underneath the in-store connected devices at retail chain Argos.