The news that Norway's Opera Software accepted a $1.2 billion buyout offer doesn't have everyone popping champagne corks.
At first glance, it seems nothing short of miraculous that the company, founded in 1995 during Netscape's heyday, hung on long enough to see a sizable exit. But the deal also comes just as Opera had finally hit its stride in recent years, and executives were starting to dream about achieving the status of global tech powerhouse that had eluded them for so long.
Sitting in a conference room recently at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Opera CEO Lars Boilesen hinted at his disappointment that his team might not get a chance to see whether it could, at last, fulfill its potential on its own.
"We were fine being independent," Boilesen said. "The fact that the board wanted to start a strategic process was a decision by the board."
