Almost every update Facebook has made recently has been focused on integrating itself more seamlessly into users' online lives. Now, a new rumor has surfaced: according to an anonymous source at Pocket-lint, Facebook is looking to buy Opera Software, which operates both a web and mobile browser. If Facebook did acquire Opera, it could build in automatic notifications, sharing, and other features, the source says. A separate source at Opera has also told The Next Web that the company is in the midst of a hiring freeze and is currently talking to potential buyers, though they made no mention of Facebook.
Both Facebook and Opera have declined comment, and Opera is a much more established company than those that Facebook has bought so far. That makes this deal far from a given, even if it would fit with Facebook's steady expansion of its platform. It also, of course, fits with the long-rumored Facebook-centric phone, where Opera Mini could supplant Chrome or the default Android browser, helping Facebook to shore up its popular but relatively unprofitable mobile business.