Opera purchases Skyfire for $155m to improve mobile browser

posted by Michael H. / Feb 15, 2013, 12:20 AM

Opera purchases Skyfire for $155m to improve mobile browser

Opera has been having a pretty impressive week. First, it announced that it would be transitioning all of its browsers to WebKit, and that its browsers have amassed 300 million active monthly users, and now the company has announced that it will purchase Skyfire Labs, maker of the SKyfire browser, for $155 million, likely in an effort to improve Opera's mobile browsers.

Skyfire is most well known for making the mobile browser that allows users to view Flash content on iOS and Android by processing the content in the cloud. The browser has been around since before Flash was officially on Android, and is still around now that Flash is no longer supported in the newest updates of Android. Although it seems likely that the Skyfire browser will disappear after this acquisition, and be folded into Opera Mobile and/or Opera mini. Skyfire is also known for its mobile video optimization, and its Rocket Optimizer product, which is quite similar to Opera Turbo, and can reduce the size of streaming video and media by up to 60%.

Skyfire's technology should definitely help to improve Opera's mobile offerings. The acquisition is expected to be finalized by March 15, 2013. Opera will may $50 million up front, and based on performance over the next three years, the deal could end up being worth as much as $155 million in cash and stock for Skyfire Labs.

source: Opera via The Next Web

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5 Comments

1. rnk.khch

Posts: 86; Member since: Jan 30, 2012

Quite impressive for Opera!!! Keep up the good work!!! Opera Mobile is an excellent browser!!!

posted on Feb 15, 2013, 1:03 AM 4

2. mew7946510

Posts: 55; Member since: Nov 10, 2010

I'm hoping for a far better browsing experience! Looking forward for the "Ice" browser!

posted on Feb 15, 2013, 3:47 AM 0

3. christumaini

Posts: 27; Member since: Oct 25, 2012

nice move.. we are looking forward for opera mobile os in the near future like your fellow mozilla

posted on Feb 15, 2013, 4:01 AM 1

4. -box-

Posts: 3991; Member since: Jan 04, 2012

Great. When I was an Android and Symbian user Skyfire was my browser of choice, with Opera being for when I needed to use less data or Skyfire wasn't cooperative

posted on Feb 15, 2013, 2:05 PM 0

5. DSmithee unregistered

Never expected this--since Opera's offerings are leaps and bounds better than what Skyfire Labs offers. Hell, Skyfire for Android hasn't been updated in nearly 2 years.