Browser Maker Opera Files For A $115M US IPO, Bitmain offers $50M

Browser Maker Opera Files For A $115 Million US IPO, Bitmain offers $50 Million

Shalaka Nalawade

July 9, 2018

Last Week Browser Maker Opera Filed for an IPO in the US

Two years after it was bought by a Chinese Consortium, Browser maker Opera has filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It also plans to raise up to $115 million through this, though the amount in the first filing is usually a placeholder. CICC and Citigroup Inc (C.N) are the underwriters to the IPO.

Reuters reported that Opera Ltd has applied to list its American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol “OPRA”.

Opera, which was owned by Norwegian software firm Otello Corp ASA was sold, along with Otello’s privacy and performance applications to a consortium of Chinese investors in 2016. Otello, then called Opera Software ASA, later changed its name and trading symbol on the Oslo Bourse.

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According to its F-1 document, Opera generated $128.9 million in operating revenue last year and $6.1 million in net income. The company has around 322 million MAUs, of which 182 million MAUs are across its mobile browser products and 57.4 million MAUs for its desktop browser. The Opera News product has 90.2 million users for the browser and standalone app.

The document also states that Opera has only three sources of income, “A small number of business partners contribute a significant portion of our revenues. In 2017, our top two largest business partners in aggregate contributed approximately 56.1% of our operating revenue, with Google and Yandex accounting for 43.2% and 12.9% of our operating revenue, respectively.” The other two sources are ads and licensing deals.

A Wall Street-centric news portal reported that Opera will be selling $50 million in shares to Bitmain and $10 million portions to another two buyers. Bitmain is a cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer from China, that operates several mining pools which, combined, mine almost half of the world’s Bitcoin.

Opera is one of the world’s leading browser providers and an influential player in the field of integrated AI-driven digital content discovery and recommendation platforms. It will reportedly use the IPO’s proceeds on research and development (R&D), marketing, strategic partnerships, and working capital.

Shalaka Nalawade

Shalaka has been a journalist for past eight years, having worked with media houses like Times of India and All India Radio. She can dabble in writing about topics that range from subjects like science, visual arts, music, fashion, and pop culture. A published author, in her free time you'll find her either cooking up plots for her next book or thinking about baking cakes.