Neverware, the New York-based developer of the secure and manageable CloudReady operating system, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Flint Innovations Limited, the UK-based company behind Flint OS, a Chromium operating system. The deal is expected to close by the end of March 2018; terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition follows Neverware's October announcement of its Series B round of funding, which was raised to scale Neverware's sales and marketing efforts in the enterprise space while amplifying adoption of the CloudReady operating system already taking place in the global education market. Neverware's investors include Collaborative, General Catalyst, Google LLC, and Rethink Education.
CloudReady is built on Google's open-source Chromium project, the same technology that powers Chromebooks. Using CloudReady, schools and businesses can make the speed, simplicity, and security of Chromebooks available on nearly any PC or Mac, regardless of manufacturer or age. CloudReady launched in 2015 and has been used by more than 1,200 school districts across all 50 states and in 21 countries around the world. Flint OS, which entered the market in 2017, has quickly established itself as a leading player in the Chromium operating system market in Europe.
"We're very happy to welcome the Flint OS team and their customers to the Neverware family," said Andrew Bauer, CEO of Neverware. "Together we'll be better positioned—in Europe and around the world—to expand awareness in schools and businesses of the benefits that accompany installing a secure, easily manageable operating system like CloudReady on existing computers."
Flint OS CEO and co-founder Will Smith will remain with the firm and will assume the new role of Neverware's Head of European Operations, working from London.
"We created Flint with the vision that all applications and services we use today will be living in the cloud, and can be done through a single browser window," Smith said. "Neverware believes just as keenly in that vision, and I look forward to working with them to bring a lightweight, modern operating system to the European market."
About Neverware
Neverware is a New York-based developer of lightweight desktop operating systems. Its flagship product, CloudReady, enables schools and enterprise organizations to transform their existing hardware into simple, secure, and fast machines that can be managed right alongside Chromebooks. Since CloudReady's launch in 2015, more than 1200 school districts across all 50 states and in 21 countries around the world have used CloudReady as a cost-effective way to modernize aging hardware, expand student device access, and simplify device management.
For more information, or for a free trial of CloudReady, visit www.neverware.com.
About Flint Innovations Limited
Flint Innovations is a UK-based start-up founded by a group of ex-consultants that spent years helping businesses thrive by transforming their digital capabilities, especially by empowering their ways of working. Flint began with a vision where all applications and services used today will be living in the Cloud. Its core product, Flint OS, is a web-centric, cloud-powered and lightweight operating system here to take you to a new horizon of computing.
