Yep. Given Opera's history, my guess is that the board wants less of a 'true technology believer' and hasn't been happy with answers to the 'Come on, explain again about Chrome? Why don't we have that market share?' conversation.

In the mobile market, Opera is the top browser.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201005-...

Is it the top on mobile devices that are growing? Longer term, being on Nokia (for example) while Apple and Google continue to grow can't be good for Opera's mobile share.

Mobile browser market is small potatoes compared to desktop browser market :(.

The bigger issue is that the mobile market is moving from one where operators decide on the browser to when where it already comes with the OS.

Apple - included. Android - included. Windows phone - included.

That's not to say that there isn't a role for after market browsers like Firefox and Opera, but the opportunity has significantly diminished.

Given that mobile and operators has been the major source of revenue for Opera, the company might have some very challenging decisions to make.

I take it to mean "more focused on the short term." Re: the Chrome comparison, note that Chrome doesn't have revenue either.