Opera Software ASA

Type	Allmennaksjeselskap (OSE: OPERA)
Industry	Software
Founded	June 22, 1995
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Key people	Lars Boilesen (CEO) Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner (founder) Geir Ivarsøy (co-founder, deceased) Håkon Wium Lie (CTO)
Products	Web browser
Revenue	NOK 897.4 million (2011)[1]
Operating income	NOK 210.0 million (2011)[1]
Net income	NOK 141.9 million (2011)[1]
Employees	757 (end of Q4, 2009) [2]
Website	http://opera.com

Opera Software ASA (OSE: OPERA) is a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 220 million users worldwide.^[3] Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The company also has offices in Sweden, Poland, the People's Republic of China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Czech Republic and the United States. Opera's stated vision is "to deliver the best Internet experience on any device."^[4]

History[link]

Opera Software was founded as an independent company on August 30, 1995 by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy.^[5] The company was created to continue what was originally a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company.

Opera Software's first product, the Opera web browser version 2.1 for Windows, was released in 1997. Opera Software had an IPO in February 2004, and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange March 11, 2004.^[5]

In an attempt to capitalize on the emerging market for Internet-connected handheld devices, a project to port the Opera browser to more platforms was started in 1998.^[5] Opera 4.0, released in 2000,^[6] included a new cross-platform core that facilitated creation of editions of Opera for multiple operating systems and platforms.^[7]

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, founder

Up to this point, the Opera browser was trialware and had to be purchased after the trial period ended. But version 5.0 (released in 2000) saw the end of the trial period requirement. Instead, Opera became ad-sponsored, displaying advertisements to users without a license,^[8] which was commonly criticized as a barrier to gaining market share. In newer versions, the user was allowed a choice of generic graphical banners or text-based targeted advertisements provided by Google based upon the page being viewed.

In 2004, Opera Software settled a lawsuit with an "international corporation" for $12.75 million USD. It was speculated that the "international corporation" named in the statement announcing the settlement was Microsoft, who had previously First MSN.com controversy|blocked Opera users from correctly viewing MSN.com.^[9]

On January 12, 2005, Opera Software announced that it would offer free licenses to higher education institutions^[10] — a change from the previous cost of $1,000 USD for unlimited licenses. Schools that opted for the free license included Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, University of Oxford, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Duke University.

With version 8.5 (released in 2005) the advertisements were removed entirely and primary financial support came through revenue from Google (Opera's default search engine).^[11]

In August 2005, the company introduced Opera Mini, a Java ME based web browser for mobile phones originally marketed not to end users but to mobile network operators to pre-load on phones or offer for their subscribers.^[12]

In 2007, Opera filed a complaint against Microsoft in the European Commission, alleging that bundling Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows is harmful to both the consumer and to other web browser companies.^[13] The complaint resulted in the creation of BrowserChoice.eu.^[14]

Håkon Wium Lie, chief technical officer

Acquisitions[link]

AdMarvel acquisition

On January 20, 2010 Opera Software announced that it had acquired AdMarvel, Inc, who makes mobile advertising work by enabling mobile publishers and operators to easily source, provision, manage and track advertising from virtually any ad network or direct sourced advertising inventory. The acquisition will enable Opera to expand its portfolio of products and services to include highly scalable ad monetization services for Opera branded mobile products and services offered by mobile operators and content partners.

FastMail.fm acquisition

On April 30, 2010, Opera announced that it had acquired Australian web email provider FastMail.FM. Opera claims that the acquisition will enable it to expand its current messaging product portfolio and deliver cross-platform messaging to a wide range of devices.^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Opera Software

• Official website

v t e Opera Companies Opera Software Telenor Software Opera History Features Opera 10 Opera Mail Opera Dragonfly Opera Mobile Opera Mini Nintendo DS & DSi Browser Internet Channel Technology Presto Opera Show Format Websites My Opera Related software Operator YAPO Notable individuals Håkon Wium Lie Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner Geir Ivarsøy Molly Holzschlag

Håkon Wium Lie
Håkon Wium Lie, March 2009
Born	1965 Halden, Norway
Occupation	Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software
Known for	Cascading Style Sheets
Website
Personal homepage of Håkon W. Lie

Håkon Wium Lie (born 1965 in Halden, Norway) is a web pioneer, a standards activist, and, as of 2011^[update], the Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software.

He is best known for proposing the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) while working with Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN in 1994. As an employee at W3C, he developed CSS into a W3C Recommendation with Bert Bos.^[1] As a showcase and testbed, he integrated CSS into the Arena web browser.^[1] CSS is one of the fundamental web standards, with profound impact on typography, aesthetics, and accessibility on the web.

Along with his work on the CSS specifications, Wium Lie has been an activist for standards in general. He proposed the Acid2 test which was later developed and published by the Web Standards Project.^[2] Conversely, Wium Lie has targeted Microsoft's Internet Explorer due to its poor support for standards^[3] and argued against the use of formatting objects on the web.^[4]

In 2006, Wium Lie started campaigning for browsers to support downloadable web fonts using common font formats.^[5][6][7] As of 2011^[update], all major browser vendors have implemented web fonts this way.^[8] In 2007, Wium Lie started campaigning for the video element to make it easier to publish video on the web.^[9][10]

Wium Lie has also promoted the concept of printing from the web.^[11] His book on CSS, co-authored with Bert Bos, was produced from HTML and CSS files.^[12][13] These files were then converted to PDF by the Prince XML formatter.

Building on his experience with web printing, in 2011 Wium Lie proposed to extend CSS to support pagination on screens.^[14]

Education[link]

Håkon Wium Lie attended Østfold University College, West Georgia College, and MIT Media Lab, receiving an MS in Visual Studies in 1991. On February 17, 2006, he successfully defended his PhD thesis at University of Oslo.

His PhD thesis is an illuminating background to the origins of CSS and a rationale to some of the design decisions behind it—particularly as to why some features were not included and why CSS avoids trying to become DSSSL.

Career[link]

He has worked for, among others, the W3C, INRIA, CERN, MIT Media Lab, and Norwegian telecom research in Televerket.

• In December 1996, he became known as the CSS1 W3C Recommendation editor.
• In April 1999, he joined Opera Software.
• In 1999, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.^[15]
• In 2005, he joined the board of YesLogic, the company that makes the Prince XML + CSS formatter.

Bibliography[link]

Lie and Bert Bos wrote a book on CSS, now in its third edition.

• Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web (1st ed.). ISBN 0-201-41998-X. 
• Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-201-59625-3. 
• Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web (3rd ed.). ISBN 0-321-19312-1. 

• Lie, Håkon Wium (February 17, 2006). "Cascading Style Sheets: PhD thesis". Oslo, Norway: University of Oslo. ISSN 1501-7710. http://people.opera.com/howcome/2006/phd/. 

Personal life[link]

Wium Lie lives in Oslo, Norway. There, he has started web-based campaigns against high-rise buildings^[16] and advertising in the public space.^[17]

See also[link]

• Arena with the integrated Libwww by Lie.^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Håkon Wium Lie

• Personal homepage of Håkon W. Lie
• Old homepage at W3C
• The initial CSS proposal
• Prince XML - (supports creation of PDF with CSS and webfonts)

v t e Opera Companies Opera Software Telenor Software Opera History Features Opera 10 Opera Mail Opera Dragonfly Opera Mobile Opera Mini Nintendo DS & DSi Browser Internet Channel Technology Presto Opera Show Format Websites My Opera Related software Operator YAPO Notable individuals Håkon Wium Lie Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner Geir Ivarsøy Molly Holzschlag