Facebook Shares Tumble as Company Contemplates Opera Buyout

Facebook’s Opera buyout | BCBusiness
Facebook may purchase Opera, advanced web browsing software, to firm up its strategy for mobile devices.

Though shares in the world’s most popular social media network are performing poorly a week after its IPO, Facebook is mulling over a billion-dollar purchase of Opera.

Despite a disastrous tumble in share prices, Facebook is looking to purchase advanced web browsing software to firm up its mobile strategy.
 
On Tuesday, the social network’s share price dropped another 7.4 per cent to just under $30, making its much-hyped initial public offering the worst performer in a decade.
 
Facebook began publicly trading on May 18 at $38 a share, quickly raising $16 billion for the world’s largest social network. But the stocks then plummeted, making investors question financials and earning the company a few lawsuits alleging Facebook misled investors with overly optimistic projections.
 
Acquiring Opera Software would give Facebook the mobile reach it’s been struggling to build, as company creates web browsers that function well on cellphones, tablets, TVs and PCs. But after innumerable traders lost so much money following Facebook’s IPO, the company potentially throwing $1 billion around to buy Opera really rubs salt in investors’s wounds.