I just got a tip from my friend Dejan about this; I couldn’t believe my eyes! What does this mean? Is it true?
Read Microsoft Buys Out Opera and please let me know if you know more, and what your opinions about this are.
Jere
Bullshit, as usual. (Discussed this on IRC).
There have been some other rumors recently as well:
http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2005/12/rumor-google-to-buy-opera-according-to.html
http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2005/12/dvorak-microsoft-should-buy-opera.html
Plus more, older rumors. Seems there are many many instances that all have bought Opera 
sculder
hope it’s really a bullshit, cos I would hardly believe Opera could destroy itself by selling to MS.
theUg
Yea, if that would happen, that would be sensless, to say the least. But truly unlikely. I suppose. 
Douglas Clifton
Given all the bad press that Opera has given Microsoft, and some legal battles to boot, I highly doubt this would ever happen. Last I heard they were flatly denying it. And the Google thing, well, I highly doubt that as well.
Dudu Figueiredo
They had updated the link.
Update: Opera recently confirmed that Microsoft has not approached the browser maker and there is no active acquistion deal between the two companies currently.
If happen, would you consider it as something good?
Andrew Kumar
Well Opera currently owns the mobile browser scene for WAP devices. I could see a Microsoft acquisition in the following years as everyone goes mobile, although I’d hate to see it… *sigh*
Robert Nyman - author
Thanks for your comments.
I guess I jumped the gun by posting this, I wanted to get it out there before the holidays. And imagine if it had been true!
If happen, would you consider it as something good?
Hard to say…
I’m not really for hostile takeovers, like one such as this would be, I believe, but on the other hand I’ve never been a fan of the Opera web browser myself, so one less web browser to cater to wouldn’t make me sad either.
I think Andrew is spot on and that was the first thing I thought when I read about it too. If Microsoft were to buy Opera, I find it most likely that they would just scrap the “normal” Opera web browser and focus on the mobile version. For a long time, Microsoft have been trying to get a hold of the handheld market to no avail, so they buying Opera for solely that purpose doesn’t seem unlikely to me.
