Facebook Looking at Opera Acquisition, Smartphone: Report
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To better compete with Google and Apple, Facebook may be entering the smartphone business and snapping up Opera Software.
Two rumors related to the social networking behemoth Facebook surfaced over the weekend, one relating to its potential acquisition of the Web browser firm Opera and one from a report in The New York Times that suggested Facebook is still working on a smartphone of its own to challenge Samsung, Apple and Googles Android devices. The Times report quoted unnamed Facebook employees and people who had been informed of Facebooks plans as saying the company hopes to have the phone out by next year, and has recruited engineers from Apple to help with the projectFacebooks third attempt at building its own smartphone, according to the report. Now that Facebook is a public company, its investors will be looking for ways to grow the sites revenues, particularly in the wake of a much-lauded but somewhat embarrassing IPO event last week. [CEO Mark Zuckerberg] is worried that if he doesnt create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms, a Facebook employee quoted in the report said.Building isnt something you can just jump into, Hugo Fiennes, the founder of hardware company Electric Imp who previously helped Apple build the hardware for the first four iPhones, told the Times. You change the smallest thing on a smartphone and you can completely change how all the antennas work. You dont learn this unless youve been doing it for a while. Going into the phone business is incredibly complex.
