Opera signs licensing deal with Russia's Yandex

Norwegian mobile Internet browser maker Opera has signed a licensing deal with Russia's Yandex, Opera's chief executive said on Monday.

Yandex plans to launch its own browser based on Opera's Turbo technology.

"This is a good commercial deal for us, and if there would be a cannibalist situation, the cooperation is still very positive for Opera," the firm's chief executive Lars Boilesen told Reuters.

"Normally it would be negative to get a competitor which eats into our market share but through this deal that is absolutely not a negative thing," he added.

The deal was first announced on September 21 but Opera did not disclose that Yandex was the customer at that time, awaiting the product launch.

Boilesen said that while the browser market is very tough for newcomers he was confident Yandex had a good chance of success on the Russian market.