Google to buy Opera?

Post by **fac51** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:00 pm

Pierre Chappaz, the former president of Yahoo Europe, claims to have a source, whom he says is generally very well informed, who told him that Google is planning on buying the Opera web browser.

I must say that I find this very hard to believe; after all, Google recently hired some Mozilla/Firefox people, in addition to being an active supporter of the open source browser.

If this in fact were true, it wouldn’t be the first time that Opera has been approached by a major company for a buyout. Back in 1996 Sun Microsystems made an offer to buy Opera for about ?9 million ($16.8 million US). A while back an Opera spokeswoman told me that they have been approached by major companies in the past but Opera's CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, has always declined the offers, no matter the dollar size.

An Opera official outright denied this claim, after I asked about it, saying "Rumors come and go. Google is not buying Opera."

Perhaps there is a bit of truth to this, maybe Google is collaborating with Opera on some project that we don't know about yet. Who knows?

source

Post by **117** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:23 pm

i'd say it's more likely that they're working closely on a project together (better integration of google services into opera for instance), rather than google actually buying opera itself

Post by **117** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:45 pm

meanwhile, it seems Google are about to buy a hefty stake into AOL

Google shares have hit record highs on reports it could take a stake in Time Warner's internet unit, AOL.

Under the deal, Google would pay $1bn (?565m) for a 5% stake in AOL, the Wall Street Journal website has reported. The two firms have declined to comment.

story

Post by **fac51** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:49 am

in their quest for world domination

vinnieza · Post by **vinnieza** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:01 pm

nooooo, i don't like aol. Don o why just don't

. Lets hope they make them better then

Post by **117** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:07 pm

AOL is a big bunch of arsie arseness with a side-helping of arse

Post by **fac51** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:09 pm

i concur

Post by **117** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:11 pm

i do believe, in fact, that AOL stands for Arse Of Lots

vinnieza · Post by **vinnieza** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:17 pm

reminds me of a picture i used to have, nope can't find it

. Just an error message saying somthing like sorry aol cannot perform that operation because it's aload of arse etc (well along thoes lines)

Edit: This is it: http://geeksbearinggifts.com/AOL/AOL_Error.gif

Post by **117** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:19 pm

not seen that before

Post by **fac51** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:52 pm

Eamonn · Post by **Eamonn** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:58 pm

Vlammetje · Post by **Vlammetje** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:48 pm

(I know one AOL subscriber actually and all I can say is (after having used her internet for about an hour) tis even worse than I had ever imagined)

Post by **117** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:02 am

it's happened, deal's done:

Google Inc. and America Online Inc. Tuesday expanded their search and advertising alliance to include video and instant messaging, shutting out Microsoft Corp., which had fought hard for a deal with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit.

America Online said Google had agreed to invest $1 billion to take a 5 percent stake in AOL, as part of an enhanced pact where Google will move beyond text-based advertising to allow AOL to sell graphical ads to Google's fast-growing ad network.

saucie

Vlammetje · Post by **Vlammetje** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:06 am

bah

btw I noticed how AOL randomly adds bots to my AIM contact list