An offer of $1.2 billion was made today for the acquisition of Opera Software ASA by a Chinese equity investment fund.

Opera Software ASA announced today record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2015, and on the same day, it received a kr10.5 billion ($1.2 billion / €1.1 billion) buyout offer from a Chinese equity investment fund that's made up of several companies.

The Chinese are offering a huge amount of money, and it's in cash, if anyone was wondering. For now, this is just a buyout offer for 100% of the shares, but it also means that it needs to be approved by shareholders. On the other hand, the board has already unanimously decided to recommend the shareholders to accept the offer.

From the looks of it, this is pretty much a done deal since larger shareholders representing approximately 33 per cent of the Opera shares have already decided to accept the offer, so this acquisition will most likely happen.

Who is the buyer?

The Chinese equity investment fund is actually made up of several companies, Kunlun and Qihoo, backed by the investment funds Golden Brick and Yonglian.

"There is strong strategic and industrial logic to the acquisition of Opera by the Consortium. We believe that the Consortium, with its breadth of expertise and strong market position in emerging markets, will be a strong owner of Opera. The Consortium’s ownership will strengthen Opera’s position to serve our users and partners with even greater innovation, and to accelerate our plans of expansion and growth," said Lars Boilesen, chief executive officer of Opera.

From what the company has said until now, this buyout offer wouldn't change the way Opera does business. It's presented more as an investment and not like a change in leadership. There is also no mention of changes to the hierarchy of the company, which is also likely to happen, if the deal goes through.