Opera CEO Steps Down, Immediately Replaced

[djdanster]

Jon von Tetzchner has stepped down as CEO of Opera, though he will remain with the company full-time in a "strategic and independent" capacity. Opera has appointed Lars Boilesen to take his place as CEO.

Jon von Tetzchner co-founded the company fifteen years ago. Boilesen has held executive positions at Alcatel-Lucent where he was CEO for the Nordics and the Baltics. He has also served at Opera Software where he was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, from 2000 to 2005. A year ago, he rejoined Opera as Chief Commercial Officer, and has served on the company's Board of Directors as Vice Chairman.

"Lars Boilesen brings both a very significant industry experience and a deep understanding of Opera to the role as the company's Chief Executive Officer. In short, Opera's spirit runs through his veins," says Jon von Tetzchner. "My decision to assume a new role in Opera is based on a lengthy consideration process. As outgoing Chief Executive, I leave confident in the company's continued leadership in key markets, our strong management team, our ongoing commitment to innovation, and our robust financial foundation."

"I was very happy about convincing Lars to come back to Opera one year ago. Today, I am very excited about asking him to take over as CEO as we continue our growth and global expansion. We have worked closely together for many years and I am certain that he is the right person to lead Opera into a very bright future," added von Tetzchner.

"I am impressed with what Opera has achieved under Jon?s leadership," says Boilesen. "We provide browser technology not only to nearly 100 million consumers worldwide, but also to the major players in the industry: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Nintendo, KDDI, SKT, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson to name but a few. Our focus going forward is to execute on our current strategy and continue to deliver the best browser experience to the breadth of our customer and user base."

Opera says Boilesen played a crucial role in transforming Opera from a desktop browser vendor into a leader in cross-platform browsing.

Source

[Cy-Kill]

Jon von Tetzchner has stepped down as CEO of Opera, though he will remain with the company full-time in a "strategic and independent" capacity.

As head of Janitorial services.

[Growled Member]

I guess only time will tell if people like von Tetzchner and Shuttleworth are doing the right thing for their companies.

[Pallab]

I am just speculating but this may be due to share holder pressure. Opera's recent financial performance hasn't been very good.

Opera has a dominating presence on mobile devices. However, it has failed to gain mass popularity in the desktop market. It currently has more than 90 million users and employs 750 people around the world. After delivering strong results over over several quarters, Opera slumped to a surprise loss in the third quarter of 2009. Opera?s performance was below market expectations and resulted in a sharp drop in Opera?s shares. According to revenue projections, Opera would be at best able to break even in the fourth quarter.

[Crazysah]

I am just speculating but this may be due to share holder pressure. Opera's recent financial performance hasn't been very good.

This is a movie in the right direction for Opera. I think they will now be more focused and will have a much better 2010.

[PreKe]

I am just speculating but this may be due to share holder pressure. Opera's recent financial performance hasn't been very good.

No, this has apparently been planned for more than a year. They actually brought back the new CEO specifically to replace Jon.

The recent financial performance is due to massive investments in stuff like Opera Mini 5, Mobile 10 and desktop 10.5. If you remove the "currency effect" which made the previous quarters unusually strong, it turns out that Opera has actually been growing.

So all that remains is a small loss due to major and important investments (past investments have more than paid off). Opera is still growing if you remove the part of the past profits that are due to the NOK being unusually weak compared to USD and EUR.