The interview came after media reports said that Opera Software is selling parts of its business to a Chinese consortium for 600 million dollars after a full 1.24-billion-dollar takeover did not get regulatory approval in time. The consortium includes search and antivirus web group Qihoo 360 and gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech.
According to Yushchyuk, the Americans most likely said "no" to the takeover because they see Opera as a competitor, and they would prefer for Opera to ceasing to exist on the market in principle. As for the Chinese, their interest in Opera isn't simply geared at "getting this little piece of the market," he said.
"The Chinese are more interested in how to develop their own browser, even on the basis of Opera, so as to promote it further and then inject money in the project. Slowing down China's drive in this direction could be one of the tasks the Americans are trying to accomplish by blocking the deal," Yushchyuk said.
Referring to Opera, he added that it is only natural that China is willing to buy what he said is already a ready-to-use product.
"By doing so, China will be able to receive the necessary basic functional element. The Chinese want to create their own browser that will foray into a global soft market. This will mean direct competition with American companies, because it is US browsers that currently dominate the market," he pointed out.
In a written interview with Sputnik, expert Zhang Fei of the Foreign Investment Research Center with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, for his part, said that it was irrelevant to talk of the regulators taking sides on the matter and that the consensus will hopefully be reached at the end of the day.
"Both parties to this deal are able to arrive at a consensus, and each party is highly interested in it," Zhang said, referring to the each-according- to-his-needs principle.
In April, a Chinese consortium said that the US Committee on Foreign Investment had allegedly started a review of the deal.
The consortium includes search and antivirus web group Qihoo 360 and gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech, as well as the Golden Brick Silk Road Equity Investment Fund and its affiliate, Yonglian Investment.
