Acadine Technologies

Acadine Technologies
Company typePrivate
FoundedMarch 25, 2015 (2015-03-25)
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Key people
Li Gong
(Chairman and CEO)
ProductsH5OS
Number of employees
120+ (December 2015)[1]
Websitewww.acadine.com Dead link, latest Web Archive link (web.archive.org/web/20180310043517/http://www.acadine.com/)

Acadine Technologies Holdings Limited[2] was a systems software company specializing in mobile operating systems for mobile, wearable, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Its core product was H5OS, a web-centric operating system that was primarily based on the open web standard HTML5. It was derived from Firefox OS, whose development company founder Li Gong had overseen as president of Mozilla Corporation.[1][3]

Acadine Technologies was founded on March 25, 2015,[2] and was based in Hong Kong with operations in Beijing, Taipei, Palo Alto, and London.[4] Initially started under the name "Gone Fishing",[3] the startup recruited various staff from Mozilla apart from Gong, including James Ho, former Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal[1] and employees of Mozilla Taiwan.[5] When Mozilla announced in December 2015 that it would cease its efforts to partner with mobile carriers to use Firefox OS on smartphones, it was reported that Acadine would take over this mission with H5OS.[1] It released the first version of H5OS on 17th Feb 2016.[6]

It was announced on July 15, 2015 that Acadine Technologies would receive $100M in first-round funding from Tsinghua Unigroup International,[7] a Hong Kong entity controlled by Tsinghua University and the Chinese government.[1] In the same year, Li Gong stated that the company was already seeking a second round of funding from international investors, a main rationale being "to dispel very early the incorrect perception that we are somehow a China-backed company. We are really a pure Silicon Valley-style startup".[1]

On April 27, 2016, it was reported that the funds from Tsinghua Unigroup were not being transferred and Acadine started a reorganization.[8][9]

H5OS was discontinued in May 2016, and was never publicly released.[10]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Shankland, Stephen (2015-12-10). "Startup picks up the torch for troubled Firefox OS". CNET. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  2. ^ a b "Acadine Technologies Holdings Limited". opencorporates.com. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
  3. ^ a b Horwitz, Josh (2015-07-16). "Ex-Mozilla employees are teaming up with the Chinese government to kill Android". Quartz. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  4. ^ "Company Overview of Acadine Technologies Holdings Limited". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
  5. ^ "China Poaches Top Talent from Mozilla Taiwan for IoT Projects". TechNews. 2015-06-13. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  6. ^ "ACADINE Technologies Releases First Version of H5OS". Archived from the original on 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2016-02-19. (Acadine press release, February 17, 2016)
  7. ^ "Mobile OS Company Acadine Technologies Receives $100M First-Round Funding from Tsinghua Unigroup International". Archived from the original on 2015-07-23. Retrieved 2015-07-23.
  8. ^ 鄒昀倢 (2016-04-27). "快搶人才！被「中國紫光」投資放鳥的「明辨科技」傳大裁員". 科技爆橘. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  9. ^ 詹子嫻 (2016-04-27). "紫光抽手投資，明辨科技組織重整". 數位時代. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  10. ^ Shankland, Stephen. "Newest challenger to iOS and Android software dies before leaving the gate". CNET. Retrieved 2019-01-21.