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Browser-maker Opera has been making a lot of headlines of late — with last week’s announcement of its big strategic shift to WebKit. Followed hard on the heels by the news of its $155 million purchase of Skyfire. But the Norwegian software maker’s decision to abandon its own web-rendering engine in favour of the defacto WebKit standard, has had another, less visible impact: the company has reportedly dismantled a core technology developer team, according to Norwegian publication digi.no, letting some very long serving employees go.
The publication reports that a team of around 100 Opera developers in its Core Technology division has shrunk by more than 90 positions, with “a large contingent” taking a severance package before Christmas — “including veterans Yngve Pettersen, André Shultz and Lasse Magnussen” — and a further 50 to 70 taking redundancy in January. (Magnussen’s LinkedIn profile indicates he left Opera last month, after 14 years and eight months with the company — with his last role listed as being in the “core dept.”.)
Some of the Core developers have moved on to other departments within Opera, according to Digi.no — although it is not clear exactly how many have stayed on in new roles. The publication notes that Opera’s last quarterly report included a line stating it had reduced staff from 931 to 840 employees, but says the company has refrained from discussing the specifics of the downsizing.
Digi.no quotes Opera HR Director Tove Selnes confirming certain aspects of the downsizing. “This reorganization has been resolved in cooperation with the individual,” she is quoted as saying (via Google Translate). “We’ve come to terms with about 90 people, both in development and not development-related departments.”
She goes on to add that the move to WebKit will create more new “final product” roles within Opera than the company has ever had.
At the time of writing Opera had not responded to requests for comment. We’ll be updating this story with any additional information.
Last week Opera said it now has 300 million users of all its browser products, across mobile, tablets, PCs and TVs.
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software. Opera handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds. Opera is offered free of charge for personal computers and mobile phones, but for other devices it must be paid for.
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software. Opera handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds. Opera is offered free of charge for personal computers and mobile phones, but for other devices it must be paid for.
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