Opera Software, the Norwegian browser software company, has acquired Skyfire Labs, the maker of mobile browser Skyfire, for $155 million. The acquisition price includes a mix of cash and stock, with an upfront consideration of $50 million (which includes $8 million of cash on the Skyfire balance sheet) and performance based earn-out payments over three years. Based in Silicon Valley, Skyfire Labs is known for their mobile browser Skyfire which provides telecom operators with a Rocket Optimizer technology that allows them to leverage on cloud computing to optimize videos and other multimedia on cell towers, including 3G and 4G LTE networks. The company claims that Rocket Optimizer provides mobile networks a 60% boost in capacity by reducing the size of the video. Apart from that, Skyfire also has an extension platform, Skyfire Horizon, on its mobile browser. Although Opera did mention that it has acquired Skyfire for its mobile video optimization technology, it's not clear when they would implement the technology on their Opera Mini browser and whether Skyfire will continue to offer a standalone product. Opera had recently announced that it has crossed 300 million monthly users on its platform, both desktop and mobile. Presto To Webkit The company also announced that it will eventually adopt Webkit rendering engine, used by Apple Safari and Chrome browser, instead of its own Presto rendering engine. However, Opera did inform MediaNama that the transition to Webkit from Presto on its mobile browser, Opera Mini, would be rather slow. Opera will also be launching a product at the Mobile World Congress 2013…
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