Opera Software has announced that its founder Jon S. von Tetzchner will be leaving the company at the end of the month. No reason was given for von Tetzchner’s departure, with the company saying only that he is leaving to work on other unspecified projects. Von Tetzchner co-founded Opera Software back in 1995, and served as the company’s chief executive until 2010.
“When we first started out, we were a few guys in a really small office—now we are spread all over the world, have over 740 employees and over 200 million users,” von Tetzchner said in a statement. “I am very proud of what we have accomplished, and look forward to following the company closely also in the future.”
In addition to being Opera’s founder, von Tetzchner is also the company’s top shareholder; Reuters reports von Tetzchner plans to keep his roughly 12.3 percent stake in the company.
Although Opera has long struggled for market share in the desktop browser market, the browser has introduced a long series of innovative features, and Opera’s mobile offerings have fared well in the market, in part because Opera’s architecture reduces the Web data sent to mobile devices, offering solid performance and lower load times compared to other mobile browsers.
