Fresh from making a short-lived surge to the top of iTunes Store’s app chart, browser maker Opera is now buying Australian webmail service FastMail.fm to bolster its own email effort across multiple devices.
The Opera desktop web browser, which claims 50 million users, has offered a built-in email client for 10 years now. But mobile has fast become Opera’s bigger business, with 55 million users.
FastMail.fm offers its service to desktop web users but also to mobile users via WAP. It ranges from free up to $39.95 a year.
Oslo-based Opera says the acquisition will “deliver cross-platform messaging to a wide range of devices, including computers, mobile phones, TVs and gaming consoles”.
Chief strategy officer Rolf Assev: “This will enhance the value Opera provides to consumers, while assisting our operator partners in reducing customer churn.” Opera Mini, the mobile client, compresses web pages for phones by routing them through Opera’s own web servers and striping out certain elements.
No acquisition terms were revealed.