Juicy rumor coming from Pocket-lint this morning: Facebook is reportedly eyeing a takeover of desktop, tablet and smartphone browser maker Opera Software.

Citing an unnamed source, Pocket-lint says the social network juggernaut is considering an outright acquisition of the Norwegian software company to accelerate a move onto the battlefields where the browser wars between Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Apple and since recently Yahoo are being fought.

But not so fast. First of all, we asked Opera Software for an official response on the report, and a spokesperson declined to comment.

Update: Facebook also declined to comment.

One source close to Opera, however, tells us two interesting things:

1) Opera Software management is talking to potential buyers right now.

Currently listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the company’s leadership is said to consider becoming part of a larger privately-held or public company rather than trying to keep growing the business independently.

2) We’re told that there’s currently a hiring freeze at Opera, which is a surefire sign that something big is about to happen – or at least that Opera wants something big to happen.

We’re trying to get more sources to corroborate these stories, but the above comes from a very solid source. Our source was unable to confirm whether Facebook was one of the potential acquirers, but said it “would make sense”.

Indeed, an acquisition of Opera could give Facebook a major boost if they decide to enter the browser wars for real (and they may eventually have to).

As the company itself admitted when it filed to go public, it has some issues monetizing mobile right now, and that’s where its users are increasingly heading to visit Facebook.

Facebook has long been rumored to be working on a full-fledged mobile operating system based on Android, and even its own (HTC-made?) ‘social’ smartphone.

Buying Opera would certainly make more sense for Facebook than to do it all from scratch, but for now this is almost all speculation. On to the facts:

About 270 million people use Opera browsers every month, the software company claims. Furthermore, more than 168 million people used the Opera Mini browser in March 2012, with a total of 117 billion pages served.

The company has deals with mobile device (and TV) OEMs and carriers worldwide.

Opera also just bought not one but two mobile advertising companies (after picking up AdMarvel back in January 2010).

Opera boasts more than 750 employees today and a strong executive team. Its chief technology officer, Håkon Wium Lie, is a pioneer in the Web field and a standards expert who is often described as the ‘father of CSS’.

Established as an independent company back in 1995, Opera expects to book roughly $50 million in revenue for the second quarter of the year. Its market cap currently hovers around $670 million.

That would make it an expensive purchase, but Facebook’s recent IPO certainly put the social networking company in a solid position to close major deals like an Opera Software acquisition. Let’s not forget it spent $1 billion to buy Instagram.

All this does not mean Opera will end up selling, and it doesn’t mean Facebook will be the buyer if they do. But for now, Opera execs are definitely talking to a number of different companies about what a deal could look like, our source asserts. Other likely suitors include search giants Yandex (Russia) and, yes, Google.

When we learn more, you’ll learn more.

Scandinavian Web firm Opera Software has announced the release of its Opera 12 browser in beta today, extending the range, which it says is used by 250 million people across computers, mobile phones, TVs and other connected devices.

The new release, codenamed ‘Wahoo’, has a number of improvements including, most notably, themes for browsers that allows users to customise the background image that accompany them round as they navigate the Worldwide Web.

The new addition also brings a new reading functionality that lays pages out “like a book” and auto adjusts them to the viewing screen size to allow an optimised reading experience. The technology comes from Opera Reader, a former project that enabled ‘native page’ layout.

Another, but more gratuitous addition, allows photo addicts using Opera 12 to take self-portraits with breaking sweat. The browser has integrates photo services, like Photo Booth and Polaroid, which can be used to take photos via a computer’s Web-cam direct from the Opera 12 browser.

The firm has addresses the problem of crashed plug-ins bothering users too. Opera 12 plug-ins now have their process which, the firm says, means that “when a plug-in crashes, it doesn’t take Opera down with it.” Nice.

New Opera releases always add speed in addition to stability and, to that point, version 12 is nipper thanks to further optimization of the network SSL. Equally, improved tab loading times help speed up opening and closing of tabs and the browser itself, the firm says.

Other additions include a push for users in the Middle East with four new languages (Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew), 64-bit versions for Mac and Windows, HTML5 drag and drop and CSS3 animations and transitions.

“There are so many new things to try,” said Haakon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software. “The paged media project has the potential to change the way browsers handle content, and camera support shows just how web applications can compete with native apps.”

Lie also emphasises the push on increasing features for developers, calling Opera 12 “a platform to build upon”.

“We’re excited to share it with the world and see what people can create,” he concludes.

Firefox 12′s beta unveiling comes two days after Mozilla rolled out Firefox 12, and follows updates to Opera’s other platforms this year. The firm unveiled its TV app store in January, Opera Mobile 12 arrived in February and Opera Mini 7 launched on Android in March.

➤ Opera 12 (beta)

Opera Software, the little Norwegian browser software company that could, this morning launched Opera Mini 7 for Android, which it previewed at the Mobile World Congress back in February.

The release comes just a few weeks after we reported that Android’s ‘robot’ browser had overtaken Opera to take the top mobile Web browser spot for the first time. It also comes a little over a month since Opera Mini 7 hit the iOS platform.

The company also recently released Opera Mobile 12 for Android (the difference between Opera Mobile and Mini is explained below).

People who often browse the Web on the go sans access to Wi-Fi, and particularly those in places where accessing the Web over a data connection costs them an arm and a leg, should definitely give the updated Android browser a whirl.

Opera Software says the app comes with improved hardware acceleration, and lets users add as many ‘Speed Dial’ buttons as they want.

Opera Mini isn’t a ‘full-fledged’ mobile web browser like Opera Mobile; it uses the software company’s proprietary server compression technology to compress content before it gets to your phone, rendering pages on Opera’s servers.

See the graph below for a more visual explanation of how it can save costs.

In a press release, Opera Software says there are now 160 million monthly Opera Mini users, up from 140 million in November 2011.

➤ Opera Mini 7 for Android (Google Play) or visit m.opera.com from your device.

Also read:

Android overtakes Opera to become the most popular mobile Web browser

Opera brings a more social Web experience to feature phones

Opera to add more ‘feature’ to Samsung feature phones with new browser deal

Opera Software, Norway’s finest browser maker, this morning announced its acquisition of not one but two mobile advertising firms, 4th Screen Advertising and Mobile Theory, to strengthen its offering for advertisers and mobile publishers alike by adding full-fledged demand-side advertising services across the US and Europe.

Opera also wants to “better monetize the traffic that flows” through its mobile browser products, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, the company said.

In a separate release, Opera outlined how much it is paying for the two companies.

For Mobile Theory, which is based in San Francisco, Opera is putting $5 million in cash on the table. Another $13 million in cash was put in escrow and will be paid to Mobile Theory in 2013 and 2014, provided certain revenue performance targets are met. In addition, there’s an earn-out cash consideration that can amount up to $32 million (based on “aggressive” revenue and EBIT targets).

For 4th Screen Advertising, based in London, Opera is also paying $5 million in cash and putting $3 million in escrow. The additional earn-out cash consideration for 4th Screen – also based on “aggressive revenue and EBIT targets” – can amount up to $6.5 million.

This comes down to a total of $64.5 million for both companies if all targets are met, but we should point out that this would be rather unusual.

Opera says it currently serves more than 160 million monthly active users that generate more than 100 billion page views, as of December 2011.

Said Lars Boilesen, chief exec of Opera Software:

“This is yet another important step in Opera’s quest to create even more economic value in the mobile ecosystem. Two years ago, we announced the acquisition of AdMarvel – which has grown to become the global leader as a supply-side platform (publisher platform) for mobile advertising. Last year, Opera helped generate well over $200 million in revenue for our publishers globally.”

Speaking of AdMarvel, Opera says total advertising impressions from the service grew 134 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to Q4 2010, to 72 billion.

Opera also reported its earnings for Q4 2011 this morning, posting revenues of 253.1 million Norwegian Krone (roughly $43.5 million).

The company said most of the revenue growth came from its Desktop, Device OEMs, Mobile Consumers and Publishers & Advertisers divisions, noting that they’re seeing a shift towards recurring revenue streams.

Earnings before interest and tax came in at 67.6 million Norwegian Krone ($11.6 million), EBITDA at 78.8 million Norwegian Krone ($13.6 million).

Opera Mini is easily one of the most popular mobile browsers, with 144M unique users monthly worldwide. The company pulled the stats on the top 10 visited mobile sites in 2011, with the data collected spanning November 2010-2011.

According to Opera‘s stats, Google still takes the cake when it comes to search, but Facebook is a close number two. It’s interesting to note that Facebook is more popular than YouTube, a popular destination on mobile devices. It seems like people have to get their poking fix on the road.

The world’s most popular websites on Opera Mini 2011 are:

1. google.com
2. facebook.com
3. youtube.com (up 1)
4. vkontakte.ru (down 1)
5. odnoklassniki.ru
6. yandex.ru
7. wikipedia.org (up 4)
8. my.opera.com
9. yahoo.com (down 2)
10. twitter.com (up 2)

In addition to the top 10 sites, Opera picked up on a few interesting mobile browsing trends for 2011:

• Wikipedia, Blogger and Spaces all saw significant gains in 2011, whereas Wapdam, Orkut, Detik and Live all dropped out of the global top 20 as the year progressed.
• Six handsets made the top 20 list in November 2011 that were not present on the list in November 2010. Five of them were Nokia handsets and one was a Samsung handset.
• Between November 2010 and November 2011, Latin America showed the fastest growth in terms of Opera Mini users (up 247%), followed by Africa (up 145%) and South Asia (up 138%). This is the second year in a row that Latin America showed the fastest growth.

The growth in Latin America reflects exactly what we reported yesterday, with mobile activations in Brazil alone having 19.51% lift year-on-year.

While this is only data from Opera and its mobile browser, it is a good sign that mobile browsing is becoming more sophisticated and in-depth, shown by the growth of sites like Wikipedia. It seems like people aren’t just checking email on their mobile devices anymore.