What’s a browser with 10 percent of the mobile market worth? $600 million, apparently. A consortium of Chinese companies led by Qihoo 360 purchased the browser and several other Opera assets, including the company’s name. Qihoo 360 is known in China for its mobile app store and anti-virus software.
Opera, a Norweigan company, tried to sell the entire company to this same consortium for $1.2 billion earlier this year, but that deal was terminated. The new deal sells off huge chunks of the company, Engadget is reporting. The famous Opera browser, both mobile and desktop versions, are part of this sale. So are Opera’s performance and privacy apps, as well as all of Opera’s tech licensing (outside of the Opera TV ecosystem). The Consortium has also acquired the name “Opera.”
What’s left in Norway? Two ecosystems: Opera Apps & Games, and Opera TV. These will continue being owned by the Norwegian company until now called Opera. Because the consortium now owns the name “Opera,” the remaining company has 18 months to rename itself.
It may seem like the company formally known as Opera doesn’t have a lot left, and it’s true that only 560 employees will stay on board out of a total of 1,669. But Opera TV earns $616 million in annual revenue, which actually Opera claims amounts to three quarters of the company’s revenue.
But with or without revenue, the Opera browser has long been the company’s flagship product. First released in 1995, it is the only browser from that era still standing, after Microsoft stopped developing Internet Explorer last year.
Opera’s userbase isn’t huge, but it is loyal. Neglect to mention Opera in a tutorial that mentions “mainstream browsers” and you’ll hear from those users, quickly.
That loyalty was earned, in part, by focusing on performance while also bundling features other browsers left to external software or add-ons. For example, Opera doubled as an email client for much of its early life. Recent editions bundled things like ad blocking, and encrypted VPN service.
Given the Chinese government’s take on VPN services, which protect user privacy but also allow users to bypass government censorship, it’s unclear how long that particular feature will last.
But Opera, at the very least, has new owners who can hopefully give the browser a firm financial footing.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.