Opera optimistic of higher growth amid crisis

By Devidutta Tripathy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Norwegian Internet browser maker Opera Software is optimistic of performing better this year, even as a global economic slowdown is hurting demand for technology products and services, its chief executive said.

Oslo-based Opera, with a market capitalisation of about $240 million and annual sales in 2007 of 315 million Norwegian crowns ($51.67 million), has seen revenue growth of 53 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year to December. That is higher than its target of last year's 48 percent increase in revenue.

The company aimed to outperform last year's operating profit growth, Jon Tetzchner said in an interview on Thursday.

"The underlying trend is everyone wants to get on to the Internet. We don't really see that stopping," Tetzchner said, when asked if the credit crisis would hamper growth.

"And if the crisis leads to a slowdown in the ramp up of high-speed networks, that doesn't matter. We are happy with both slower and faster networks," he said, adding that the company's browsers were efficient enough to work in low-bandwidth conditions.

Opera, which makes browsers for cellphones and other mobile gadgets as well as for desktop computers, earns money from licensing its software to mobile phone and other equipment manufacturers, and expects demand to remain robust.

"We would like to do better on the EBIT, I think we set a goal of 12 percent. Now the goal is to be backed," he said, but declined to be specific. "We are optimistic as a company," he added.

Competition in the browser market has escalated after Google Inc launched its Internet browser, Chrome, in September, a head-on challenge to leader Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer that controls three quarters of the market.