There have been perma-rumors surrounding the Opera browser for several months if not several years. Those rumors have heated up quite a bit in the last few days. It seems that Google was interested(rumor) and now the big rumor of the last week has been that Microsoft is interested.
Today, Varun Dubey at CoolTechZone wrote an article entitled “Microsoft buys out Opera” and threw the proverbial log on the fire. It’s become the biggest story on tech.memeorandum and all of the big names are talking about it.
Jason Calcanis has a treatise on why Microsoft should buy Opera
Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch asks Why?
Michael Gartenberg says it would make sense.
Joe Wilcox Agrees.
Then Om Malik bursts our bubble and says it’s still just a rumor.
Buying Opera would indeed be a boon for Microsoft. Internet explorer has been called the slow, inept browser of the market and is steadily bleeding market share to Firefox. Opera was the front runner in many of the areas that make Firefox so popular and is said to be much more reliable than either.
I can only imagine that Microsoft would immediately begin operations to integrate the best of Opera and IE into something that would end up being Opera Explorer, or MS Opera, or maybe even just OperaIE.
One thing is true. If rumors begin to fly like they have around Opera, there is obviously some talk going on at the very least.
Something will happen. Soon.
[tags]Microsoft, Opera, Google, Firefox, Internet Explorer[/tags]
December 24th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
I’m going to say that the rumors about Microsoft are untrue. Opera firmly denies them and Wallstreet hasn’t responded to the rumors like they would with an immenant buyout. I would guess that Opera is up to something but it’s probably not at all what we think it is.
January 6th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
[...] Of course this is the rumor of all rumors. Bigger than the Opera Rumor, Google OS rumor, Google PC rumor, and just about any other rumor that comes to mind. Frankly I would be surprised if Steve Ballmer would step down or that Bill Gates would replace him. Mostly I think that Andy has made up a pretty good story in hopes of gaining a few extra links on what has been a pretty slow week. Mostly, I think he probably has accomplished this. With CES going on, it’s all gadgets and press shows. No really good meaty news. [...]