Opera Software acquired Handster

Opera Software company has long ago announced its intention to become a major universal developer of applications for mobile phones. Now the management of this company is taking the necessary steps to achieve this goal. So, Opera recently acquired Handster, which owns the world's largest alternative application library for the Android OS (and some other platforms).

Handster also supports applications for such mobile shells and operating systems as Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Java. The company's customers include several major mobile device manufacturers, including LG and Ericsson. It is worth noting that Opera has its own application store, Opera Mobile Store, where you can find software for platforms such as iOS, Android, BlackBery, Java, Symbian. The Opera store is one of the largest, but the acquisition of Handster clearly increases the company's chances of leadership.

The management of Opera said that the purchase of new assets allows you to expand the scope of activities. Opera currently owns 21.61% of the browser market for mobile devices and a small market share of “adult” browsers. But now Opera is no longer just a browser manufacturer, the company has become a significant player in the market of various types of mobile services and applications.

Unfortunately, the terms of the transaction were not disclosed, so the amount of the transaction is still unknown. The head of the acquired company, Viktor Shaburov, will join the team of Opera Mobile Consumer and Publisher, a division of Opera, whose office is based in San Mateo, California, USA.

Via Mashable