Flame Virus, its source of spread, precautions and preventive technical aspects of Flame virus
According to Alexander Gostev of Kaspersky Labs, one of the first experts to investigate Flame, the product “[sniffs] the network traffic, taking screenshots, recording audio conversations, intercepting the keyboard, and so on. All this data is available to the operators through the link to Flame’s command-and-control servers. Later, the operators can choose to upload further modules, which expand Flame’s functionality. There are about 20 modules in total and the purpose of most of them is still being investigated.” Other portions of Flame activate Bluetooth functionality and siphon name/phone number/address info from Bluetooth-enabled phones near infected computers. Flame was written using Lua, a programming language best known for its use in Angry Birds.
Due to Flame's information-gathering goals, complex construction, multiple redundancies to hide from virus and malware detectors, and the fact that it's not being used for financial gain, most experts are classifying the product as a cyberwar weapon. What makes Flame especially interesting (and creepy) is the fact that many infected computers are home PCs with Internet connections whose Skype conversations and documents folders were methodically spied on.
We still don't know (or aren't being told) both how Flame was released into the wild and what the primary infection methods are. An anonymous statement from Symantec claims most discovered cases are in the West Bank, Hungary, Iran, and Lebanon with smaller numbers of infected computers in Austria, Russia, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. The list of countries targeted seems to infer Israeli complicity in the cyberattack.One Israeli official already made a wink-and-nod statement that could infer local involvement in Flame. In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that “Those who view Iran as a significant threat are likely employing various means, including this one, to attack it. […] Israel has been blessed with elite technology, and these tools that we pride ourselves in open up all sorts of options for us.” However, Ya'alon's statement might also be a boastful piece of misinformation.
Researchers at the CrySyS Lab at Budapest University, who wrote one of the first technical reports on Flame (which they called sKyWIper), identified over a dozen unique words or strings of text used by the product's unknown programmers. These words were all English or Spanish, such as Boost, Flame, Flask, Euphoria, BUENO_FLAME_DLL_KEY, Headache, Beetlejuice, Microbe, and Weasel.The CrySyS team, who did not leave their names on their technical report (and noted that they "carried out an investigation in collaboration with several parties involved in incident response ... Some of these parties involved may want to remain anonymous; therefore, references in the document are deliberately incorrect to avoid identification of the source of some information, data, sample, code, prototype, etc."), said the earliest date of infection appeared to be in Europe in December 2007, in the United Arab Emirates in April 2008, and in Iran in March 2010.
The Iranian Students' News Agency (via the New York Times) claimed in April that a related program called Wiper was used in mass attacks on the Iranian Oil Ministry. According to a Kaspersky statement, "The Flame cyberespionage worm came to the attention of our experts at Kaspersky Lab after the UN’s International Telecommunication Union came to us for help in finding an unknown piece of malware which was deleting sensitive information across the Middle East. While searching for that code--nicknamed Wiper--we discovered [Flame]."
Although Kaspersky did not release details on specific infected computers, Gostev claims that victims include private “specific” individuals, educational institutions, and state-related organizations. Symantec's statement, meanwhile, cryptically says that many victims ”appear to be targeted for individual personal activities rather than the company they are employed by.” McAfee's Peter Szor and Guilherme Venere also discovered several Flame infections in the U.S.
Cyberwarfare--and corporate espionage--are two-way streets. Flame is an admirably complex piece of technology. Even if Israel or the United States isn't behind the project, it's still the pinnacle of covert cyberwarfare in 2012. However, today's high-tech novelty is tomorrow's routine weapon. As Flame is examined in detail and reverse-engineered, the product's unique aspects will be replicated and improved by other interested parties. This will mean a significant headache for computer security firms.
Programs, worms, and malware aren't created in vacuums. It's a very safe assumption that there are other products similar to Flame lurking on computers right now, surreptitiously spying on users' every move or deleting strategic files... and evading detection by the anti-virus programs personal and enterprise users rely on to keep themselves secure. Apart from the United States and Israel, China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and a host of other foreign countries have their own cyberwarfare programs. Emerging cyberwarfare threats are a part of everyday life--from Flame to fears that China is placing backdoors in computer chips sold to the U.S. military. Then, of course, there are all the cyberweapons discovered on a regular basis that we don't hear about because governments and corporations wish to keep mum.
Flame is like something out of a science fiction movie, or a plot device from the latest Mission Impossible. High strangeness is a matter-of-fact assumption when dealing with cyberwarfare and technology these days. Today's spying on academics and Iranian oil facilities might just be tomorrow's creepy corporate information-gathering tool.
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| Julian Assange |
The Swedish prosecutor that investigated the sexual assault allegations issued a European arrest warrant for Assange in 2010, is a “judicial authority” under European Union law, Britain’s top court ruled today. Assange’s lawyers argued only a judge could issue such a warrant.
“The words ‘judicial authority’ bear the meaning that includes a public prosecutor,” the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision.
The claims by two women that Assange sexually assaulted them became public around the same time he posted classified U.S. military and diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks website, creating controversy for U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration. The 40-year-old Australian claimed the arrest warrant was fabricated by Sweden to assist the U.S. in punishing him for the breach.
Assange’s lawyer Dinah Rose told the court she may seek to challenge the decision and the extradition will be stayed for 14 days. He could also apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, which would have two weeks to respond, according to the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service, which represents Sweden in the case.
2010 Arrest
Assange, arrested in London in December 2010, is accused of failing to use a condom with one of the women and having sex with the other while she was asleep. The women, both supporters of WikiLeaks, let Assange stay at their homes during a speaking tour in Sweden in 2010. The U.K. Court of Appeal ruled in November that he should return to Sweden to face the claims. He hasn’t been charged with a crime.
The British appeal doesn’t involve the substance of the rape claims and focuses on Europe’s practice of honoring arrest warrants issued from any EU member country.
Rose told the Supreme Court at a hearing in February that a clarification of the law is needed because some of the EU’s 27 members allow prosecutors to issue such warrants and some require judges.
Rose also argued that Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny’s actions -- probing the claims and then issuing a warrant herself -- breached the European rule “that nobody may be a judge in their own cause.”
Assange, arrested in London in December 2010, is accused of failing to use a condom with one of the women and having sex with the other while she was asleep. The women, both supporters of WikiLeaks, let Assange stay at their homes during a speaking tour in Sweden in 2010. The U.K. Court of Appeal ruled in November that he should return to Sweden to face the claims. He hasn’t been charged with a crime.
The British appeal doesn’t involve the substance of the rape claims and focuses on Europe’s practice of honoring arrest warrants issued from any EU member country.
Rose told the Supreme Court at a hearing in February that a clarification of the law is needed because some of the EU’s 27 members allow prosecutors to issue such warrants and some require judges.
Rose also argued that Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny’s actions -- probing the claims and then issuing a warrant herself -- breached the European rule “that nobody may be a judge in their own cause.”
Radical provisions of the new Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (PCSOA) are both empowering and threatening to teenagers accustomed to mixing freely with others. The cause for concern goes beyond PCSOA criminalizing teenage sex by increasing the age of consent from 16 to 18. Teenagers would do well to know how this 'child-friendly' law could affect their lives, for better or for worse, and how different it is from the corresponding IPC provisions dealing with adults.
Read The Text here
Rape is gender neutral for juveniles
Under IPC enacted in 1860, "A man is said to commit rape." But under PCSOA, "A person is said to commit penetrative sexual assault." This means that when it comes to adults, only women can be raped. PCSOA for the first time recognizes the possibility of a boy being raped by a girl or a woman
Definition of "penetration" has been expanded
In IPC's conception of rape, penetration is a necessary condition and it has been traditionally limited to penile vaginal intercourse. In the corresponding provision of PCSOA, the penile penetration need not be only of the vagina; it can be of the mouth, urethra or anus of the child. It also covers situations where the offender "inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, urethra or anus of the child" . Equally unprecedented is the stipulation that oral sex with anybody below 18 would be treated as rape
Penalty for molestation of a child enhanced
Under IPC, any man who outrages the modesty of a woman is liable to be punished with a maximum imprisonment of two years. As a result of the public outrage over the Ruchika Girhotra case, PCSOA stipulates that any adult who molests a child shall be awarded sentences ranging from three to five years
No close-in-age reprieve for statutory rape
While increasing the age of consent from 16 to 18, PCSOA failed to provide the safeguard adopted in liberal societies of taking a lenient view of consensual sex with a minor if the age gap between the partners is within three years. The absence of such a safeguard can have draconian implications for hormonally driven teenagers
Burden of proof on the accused, not the victim
Doing away with the presumption of innocence, PCSOA states that for sexual offences committed against children, the burden of proof shall be on the accused rather than the victim. This opens up scope for abuse: for, even if the accused is a minor, the defence case will always have to be presented first during the trial
False complaint by a child not punishable
If an adult makes false allegations against somebody of committing a child sexual offence, such a person would be punished under PCSOA with imprisonment up to six months. But PCSOA exempts a child from such a liability. "Where a false complaint has been made or false information has been provided by a child, no punishment shall be imposed on such child." This means that if one teenager makes a false allegation against another, the former is statutorily protected from any liability.
Rape is gender neutral for juveniles
Under IPC enacted in 1860, "A man is said to commit rape." But under PCSOA, "A person is said to commit penetrative sexual assault." This means that when it comes to adults, only women can be raped. PCSOA for the first time recognizes the possibility of a boy being raped by a girl or a woman
Definition of "penetration" has been expanded
In IPC's conception of rape, penetration is a necessary condition and it has been traditionally limited to penile vaginal intercourse. In the corresponding provision of PCSOA, the penile penetration need not be only of the vagina; it can be of the mouth, urethra or anus of the child. It also covers situations where the offender "inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, urethra or anus of the child" . Equally unprecedented is the stipulation that oral sex with anybody below 18 would be treated as rape
Penalty for molestation of a child enhanced
Under IPC, any man who outrages the modesty of a woman is liable to be punished with a maximum imprisonment of two years. As a result of the public outrage over the Ruchika Girhotra case, PCSOA stipulates that any adult who molests a child shall be awarded sentences ranging from three to five years
No close-in-age reprieve for statutory rape
While increasing the age of consent from 16 to 18, PCSOA failed to provide the safeguard adopted in liberal societies of taking a lenient view of consensual sex with a minor if the age gap between the partners is within three years. The absence of such a safeguard can have draconian implications for hormonally driven teenagers
Burden of proof on the accused, not the victim
Doing away with the presumption of innocence, PCSOA states that for sexual offences committed against children, the burden of proof shall be on the accused rather than the victim. This opens up scope for abuse: for, even if the accused is a minor, the defence case will always have to be presented first during the trial
False complaint by a child not punishable
If an adult makes false allegations against somebody of committing a child sexual offence, such a person would be punished under PCSOA with imprisonment up to six months. But PCSOA exempts a child from such a liability. "Where a false complaint has been made or false information has been provided by a child, no punishment shall be imposed on such child." This means that if one teenager makes a false allegation against another, the former is statutorily protected from any liability.
Ray Dalio, is a legend amongst money managers, running not only the largest hedge fund in the world (Bridgewater Associates with $120BN under management) but also one of the most successful funds in the business. Their flagship fund has returned 22.75% per annum over the last three years. Ray gives only occasional interviews, and his annual feature with the financial magazine Barron's is a must read for investors and people who are interested in the macro themes for the global economy and financial markets. To summarise:
-There are three methods of debt deleveraging for an economy : 1) Austerity which implies less spending and is therefore deflationary and constricts growth, 2) Restructuring of debt by paying less which is also deflationary as it has a negative effect on wealth and causes credit to decline ,and, 3) Printing money through quantitative easing which puts money into the system and is inflationary and stimulates the economy.
-The US has been able to achieve a "beautiful" deleveraging by pursuing all three options in a balanced manner and has therefore avoided high deflation or a depression and managed slow (but positive) growth. The Fed will do more quantitative easing if the economy slows down again.
-Fiscal stimulus is also important as the government has to spend more to offset declining sales and tax revenues and fund unemployment and other social benefits. This causes wealth redistribution as the wealthy need to be taxed more thereby causing social tension.
-The key is to keep nominal interest rates below the nominal growth rate of the economy, without printing too much money so as to cause inflation. This can be achieved by simultaneously having some austerity and debt restructurings.
-Europe is a unique case in history, as there is no decision-making process which typically produces an agreement for a country about using monetary and fiscal stimulus to reflate an economy. The LTRO operation of the ECB saved a debt collapse in Europe by financing banks to buy government debt (and refinance their debt) as investors have less money to buy the debt. The ECB needs to continue with this programme but there is resistance from some individual central banks due to the repayment risk on this debt.
-The current European situation is analogous to the US in 1789. After the colonies declared independence in 1776, they all had debt problems and no central taxation, and it was only in 1789 when a constitution (and a country) was formed that a treasury and central taxation was feasible. This allowed revenues to be produced for the country and the issuance and restructuring of debt.
-Europe is fast reaching a decision point where it will have to decide whether it wants to create a sufficient central government having the ability to collect taxes and issue debt that obligates the whole. The key question is how much pain will this cause Europe and does the pain cause a collapse before it forces the right choices to be made.
-Europe will be in a depressed state and if its banks delever in an orderly way, supported by refinancing by the ECB, the impact on the global economy can be manageable. Banks in countries like the US, China and Brazil can replace the European banks in terms of lending sources.
-However, there is a 30% risk that in the next six-month to two-year period there is a bad shock from Europe as there is no clarity on whose has got authority and control and no clear means to achieving a resolution. There are no provisions in the Maastricht Treaty for the break-up of the monetary union and exits of countries, compounded by a lack of enforceability on country debt and no resort to local currencies to devalue and repay the debt.
-Currently the global economy is slowing down and the big question is whether we get a big European shock that will favour low-risk assets. But to the extent we get negative conditions we will get central banks printing money which will cause a rally in stock markets around the world.
-So we are likely to get bull and bear markets going forward with no big trend, with the upswing lasting twice as long as the downswing. Currently we are in the higher stages of the up-cycle.
-Neutral on bonds, and over the next few years long-term bonds are likely to be a poor investment as the yield will be low relative to inflation and growth and therefore provide an inadequate return.
-The US economy will be slowing into the year-end and 2013 will be difficult year with the negative impact of the fiscal-cliff and higher taxes. The key here will be how well is the policy managed, particularly in the year after a US election which makes it more difficult.
-China and emerging markets are doing much better, as they were previously in a bubble since their debts were growing too fast relative to incomes, but growth rates have slowed significantly and are likely to remain at a moderate pace going forward.
-Neutral on commodities, with the slowing in demand. Positive on gold over the longer-term and investors should have about 10% of their assets in gold, because of the good long-term growth prospects as well as being a diversifier against the other 90%. Gold is like an alternative currency and with the massive money printing going on in the developed world, it is important to have some gold.
-Deleveragings go on for about 15 years, as an adjustment to a debt bubble which is typically a 30-40 year process typically culminating in a last two year surge like we had from 2005-2007 and 1927-1929 in the US, and 1988-1990 in Japan.
Fascinating thoughts, and his point about the requirement for quantitative easing to make deleveragings manageable is critical to the outlook for the global economy. In the US, the Fed has made it amply clear that they will act if the economic and financial conditions deteriorate enough. The ECB has been more ambivalent on this approach, but their LTRO programme was a game changer and it is likely that they will continue this policy going forward due to the serious structural issues facing Europe (as outlined above). Therefore, while the current market weakness is likely to continue into the summer , subsequent concerted actions by central banks will produce a market rally into the year-end. For long term investors, adding to long positions on market downturns and perhaps trimming positions on market surges makes sense. Buying the European stock market on further weakness later in the summer making further ECB action very likely, could be an attractive play. China, India and other emerging markets continue to present attractive buying opportunities.
Some charts which illustrate themes more clearly than words:
-With the forthcoming US elections, the state of the economy and unemployment levels are traditionally important factors in determining the outcome. In addition, the stock market is a key real-time indicator of the election outcome as the graph below clearly illustrates. The pressure on the Fed to act will increase as the economy slows and the market weakens.
-Investor "Risk-Love" sentiment in the US (from Deutsche Bank) has decidedly turned negative, which typically precedes a market downturn and subsequent policy action. We are getting closer to that point.
-
-The change in the China credit multiplier (from Deutsche Bank) is a great leading indicator for industrial growth, and is now predicting a surge in growth.
-
-The above combined with extremely attractive stock market valuations on a historical basis (see chart below from Morgan Stanley) , make the market an attractive value buy.
 |
| Rave Party |
The Acid connection
Rave parties, apart from the electronica-trance music and unbriddled dancing, are typically associated with Acid House parties where the revellers consume a semi-synthetic psychedelic drug called Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly referred to as Acid. Rave revellers are typically known to have a halucinatory and delusory trip. But in India, the use of LSD is pretty limited and instead people cocaine, speed (Ecstasy) or cheaper derivatives which usually do not provide their users a 'rave on' trip as Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton of The Yardbirds, a popular British band of the 60s, would have defined the rave experience.
But in India, parties where men and women drink, consume marijuana or hashish, pop tranquilisers and dance to any kind of music is often referred to by the authorities and the press as 'rave' parties.
Origin of raves
The exact origin of raves is disputed. Some say the wild Bohemian parties in the late 1950s London used the term "rave" loosely to describe the events of Soho. According to a public document on the website of the US Justice Department, raves evolved from 1980s dance parties, aided by the emergence of European techno music and American house music.
Raves were exclusive parties organised by European clubs in the 1980s – secretive, after-hours and private – to ensure minimum interference from law officers. Attendance was restricted to invitees only. The venue of rave parties was a closely guarded secret that only the invitees and friends of invitees were told at the night of the party to keep out unwanted visitors. The document states that the secrecy surrounding the party gave the rave culture an "underground" status.
Mass marketing of raves
By the mid-1980s, rave parties overseas had developed such a following among youths that by 1987 London raves had outgrown most dance clubs. It then became common to hold all-night raves - which drew thousands of people - in large, open fields on the outskirts of the city. As the movement continued to grow in the late 1980s, the first rave parties emerged in US cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A new rave culture emerges as teenagers took over the traditional young adult ravers. The events became highly promoted and heavily commercialised and as a result less cloak-and-dagger. Many rave promoters were career criminals who profited from organising events tailored for teens. According to the document, capitalising on the growing popularity of raves, specialized industries were developed to market clothes, toys, drugs, and music.
Today's raves are characterised by high entrance fees, extensive drug use, exorbitantly priced bottled water, very dark and often dangerously overcrowded dance floors, and "chill rooms," where teenage ravers go to cool down and often engage in open sexual activity. Many club owners and promoters appear to promote the use of drugs - especially MDMA. They provide bottled water and sports drinks to manage hyperthermia and dehydration; pacifiers to prevent involuntary teeth clenching; and menthol nasal inhalers, chemical lights, and neon glow sticks to enhance the effects of MDMA.
Electric Daisy Carnival
The Electric Daisy Carnival is one of the world's largest electronic music festivals, with a weekend of outdoor music and dancing in Las Vegas with 26 carnival rides, kaleidoscope sculptures, pyrotechnic displays, a pulsating soundtrack and a reputation for heavy drug use that it hoped to live down.
The increasing notoriety of raves has caused the rave culture to spread from major metropolitan areas to more rural or conservative locations. The genres of electronic dance music played at raves include house, trance, psytrance, techno, house, jungle and jungle techno.
The parties have also spread to Asian countries such as India and Malaysia. In India, St Mary's Island, Udupi, on the Malpe coast often play host to hundreds of foreigners and tourists who had come from Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and other parts of India to participate in a three-day Rave Party called 'Spring Zouk' - the Island Festival. Over 600 couples participated in the festival.
Flashy lights, crowded beaches, loud rock music, round the clock acid house party packed with high levels of energy marked the festival.
Sale of liquor in the Island, nude and half nude appearances by the party animals, smoking of banned substances like ganja in a party were introduced for the first time in the Udupi region. Over 300 tents are installed every year at the Island for the tourists. The Udupi District Administration in association with 3W Concepts had organised the event as a tourism promotion tool. Locak folk forms like Dollu Kunita, Kangeelu, Yakshagana, Suggi Kunitha by the Halakki tribes are also staged before the tourists.
The 28-year-old’s fortune fell to $14.7 billion today from $16.2 billion on May 25, as shares of the world’s largest social-networking company dropped 9.6 percent to $28.84. That extended the stock’s losses to 24 percent from the worst- performing large initial public offering in the past decade.
“It seems to be a clear reflection that there was just too much stock issued, that the valuation was aggressive and that a lot of people who lined up to buy it really had no intention of holding it,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of BMO Harris Private Bank in Chicago, said today in a telephone interview. The bank oversees about $60 billion of assets.
Facebook shares closed at $38.23 on May 18, the first day they began trading, giving Zuckerberg a net worth of $19.4 billion. The Menlo Park, California-based company ended the day with a price-earnings ratio of 83.1, making it more expensive than 99 percent of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) stocks. The company went public as the equity index was heading for its biggest monthly decline since September.
Facebook options trading began today, with volume for puts exceeding calls by 1.2 to 1, data compiled by Bloomberg show. More than 200,000 puts were traded, giving the holder the right to sell the shares at a specified price. June $30 puts were the most active contracts, with volume at 23,835. They were followed by June $34 calls and June $32 calls, which carry the right to buy the shares.
Zuckerberg is now $800 million behind Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who ranks 40th with a fortune of $15.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest people.
US markets had an excellent session and closed near day's high. All dow components were closed positive. European woes are residing as investors feel tired of hanging policies. Valuations look attractive as buying at lower levels may be a strategy for now. Asian markets were shown a significant weakness due to rising spain debt yield to unsustainable alarming levels. All asian markets were in red, while hong kong markets and taiwan down over 2 percents.Nifty Trading Tips & Outlook Today
Nifty will see a mild correction today after two days of rally, use this dip to accumulate Nifty at lower levels. Trend will be positive in near term. Buy on dips around 4930-4940 ( spot ) levels. Don't short Nifty at current levels.
Check out our previous recommendations here
What the world needed, they agreed, was a metric to reliably rate someone's looks.
Seven and a half years after launch, they sold HotorNot for a reported $20 million, and now the site--at least as it was--no longer exists. But here's how it looked back in 2001, and an interview with Hong which proves that the right pivot can score you a date.
Opera Software shares soared over 20 per cent on Tuesday on talk Facebook was in discussion to buy the firm, while analysts said competition from Google and others could push the price tag of any deal over $1 billion.
Shares of Oslo-listed Opera, coveted for its advanced mobile phone software technology, jumped as much as 26 percent, valuing the firm at over $800 million.
Opera's mobile technology, along with 170 million Opera Mini users, give the firm extensive commercial relationships with mobile phone manufacturers and operators.
Facebook has struggled to convert its rapidly increasing traffic from mobile platforms to revenue, and purchasing Opera would be a faster solution than building its own platform or browser, analysts added.
"Opera would be sensible for Facebook on several levels as it would enhance the now limited mobile experience of Facebook, improve Facebook's mobile monetization problem, help Facebook retain online game developers leaving the social network over a lacking mobile platform and further improve Facebook's ability to target ads," Arctic Securities said.
It would be such a perfect fit for Facebook, analysts said it would have to pay a hefty premium.
DNB, Norway's top bank, said the price would have to be double Friday's closing level, or 68.6 crowns, valuing the firm at $1.35 billion, while Danske Bank predicted a price between 50 and 60 crowns a share, or between $1 billion and $1.2 billion.
At 1021 GMT, the stock traded up 16.9 percent at 40.1 crowns a share, valuing the firm at around $800 million.
Opera officials have repeatedly declined to comment.
Obstacles
Still, several obstacles remain.
Opera founder and top shareholder Jon S Von Tetzchner said the firm should focus on organic growth.
"I want Opera to focus on growth and delivering good results; there are big opportunities for Opera," Tetzchner, who holds 10.9 percent of Opera told Reuters. "We have been promised 500 million users by 2013 and I think that's a good goal and the firm should keep going for it."
"I personally think that an ARPU (average revenue per user) goal of $1 is even modest," he said. "I am not pushing for a takeover."
Tetzchner said he was not aware of a bid and had not decided how he would react to one but added it would be "undemocratic" for him to try to block it if others supported it.
Another obstacle could be Google, which has extensive relationships with Opera.
"A takeover by Facebook will likely send cold water down Google's spine," Arctic Securities said.
Google is Opera's default search partner for Opera Mini and Opera Mobile worldwide outside Russia/CIS, making the firm a key relationship for Google.
If the firm continued to grow organically, it would be able to maintain several parallel relationships with firms like Facebook and Google so if one of them wanted full control, the premium would have to be hefty, analysts added.
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• Amarin Corporation PLC (AMRN) Announces U.S. Patent Issuance for AMR101 More...
• Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ORMP.OB) Granted Core Technology Patent in New Zealand More...
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