Opera Software of Norway said that it is selling it a majority stake in Opera TV to Moore Frères & Company, an investment holding company focused exclusively on the tech, media, and telecom industries. Opera claims to be the leading independent developer of cloud and embedded software for OTT devices such as Smart TVs, Blu-ray disc players, set-top boxes and video game consoles and customers include Sony, Samsung, TiVo, Verizon and Sagemcom and it has customers all over the world.
“We look forward to partnering with the Opera TV leadership team to accelerate growth by expanding into new, high-growth adjacent segments, and to further strengthen its leadership position in the entertainment ecosystem, ” said Martez R. Moore, chairman and CEO of Moore Frères.
“Moore Frères has impressive TMT and operational expertise that will help Opera TV expand its offering and serve a broader array of customers worldwide,” said Lars Boilesen, chief executive officer of Opera Software ASA. “The Opera TV business has significant potential to drive continued innovation and unlock the full potential of the connected TV. We are pleased to retain a minority stake in order to benefit from the company’s continued growth and success.”
The companies quoted data from RnR Market Research that forecasts a 17.2% CAGR for the OTT market to $62 billion in 2020 and from IHS that said that half of all households in the US, Europe, Japan and China will have smart TVs by 2019, which is approximately 426 million households. IHS also forecasts that 378 million set-top boxes will ship in 2016, up 7.7% from 2015.
