Opera Software acquires Bemobi

Opera Software announced on Aug. 7 that it has acquired Bemobi, a subscription-based, mobile-app-discovery service in Latin America.

"Opera has expanded rapidly in the mobile-app ecosystem, and our goal is to innovate within this space in a manner that benefits everyone -- Bemobi is a natural fit for Opera in this direction," Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software, said. "This acquisition brings an added dimension to our app-discovery services, with a new monetization model that has proven to work well in our core markets."

Bemobi offers a "Netflix-style" subscription service for premium Android apps. Working with mobile operators, Bemobi's proprietary app-wrapping technology allows smartphone owners access to unlimited use of premium mobile apps for a small weekly fee. Users pay for this service through their mobile operator billing systems. The service is highly effective in emerging markets, where credit card and debit card penetration is low.

The addition of Bemobi's industry leading service, allows Opera to bring innovative app-discovery and monetization services across the globe and position Opera as the global leader in this space.

"Bemobi's team, product, technology and operational excellence are highly complementary to Opera's scaled presence in mobile-app discovery services," Sameer Merchant, president of Opera Commerce, a subsidiary of Opera Software, said. "The combination of our respective strengths allows us to deliver services that benefit end users, our operator partners and our app-developer partners."

The acquisition will be completed in the third quarter of 2015.