Facebook is planning to acquire Opera Software, the maker of Opera browser, reveals tech blog Pocket-lint.

Citing "trusted sources," the tech blog reported that the social media giant is prepping up to foray into browser space to compete with Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Apple, and also Yahoo, which has recently launched its own browser, Axis.

PCMag, meanwhile, tried to contact the Facebook and Opera spokespersons but both the companies declined to comment.

"As a standard policy Opera does not respond to market rumors and we have no comment to the rumor addressed in the question," Opera Software said in a statement, PCMag reports.

A report from The Next Web also reveals that the "source close to Opera" claims that the company has stopped hiring and is in talk with potential buyers. Moreover, the company, which earlier said that 270 million people use its browsers every month, has decided not to grow the business on its own and is planning to become part of a larger privately held or public company.

Facebook, meanwhile, has scrapped plans of buying Instagram for $1 billion, which was announced just a few weeks back, and have instead launched its own photo-sharing camera app, dubbed Facebook Camera. The social media company also went public last week and Mark Zuckerberg, the  youngest and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in recent times, got married to his long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan, the very next day.