The Chinese were forbidden to buy Opera Software

The Norwegian Opera Software will sell a business for the development of a mobile and desktop browser for Chinese investors for $ 600 million, Reuters reports with reference to the company's statement.

According to Opera, the transaction for the sale of the total business for $ 1.24 billion was not approved by the Chinese regulator. In particular, the company did not receive permission to sell a business for the development of applications, games and an advertising unit.

The buyer of part of the business will be the same consortium that claimed the entire company. It is headed by Golden Brick Silk Road, the Consortium also includes the developer of the game Beijing Kunlun Tech and the manufacturer of protective software Qihoo 360 Technology.

Opera did not specify why the Chinese authorities refused the transaction. On July 18, shares of the Norwegian company fell by 17% to 50 kroons per paper, reports Bloomberg. The market value of the company decreased to 7.3 billion kroons ($ 860 Million).

The Chinese became known about the sale of Opera Software in February 2016. The company announced the revision of its strategy in August 2015. The Opera browser was first introduced in 1994, when its creators worked for the Norwegian telecommunication Telenor.

One of the founders of Opera Software, Jon Stefenson von Tepner, left the company in 2011 and took up the development of Vivaldi browser. The first version of the browser was presented in 2015.