Mozilla Foundation
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox organization The Mozilla Foundation is an American non-profit organization that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mozilla project. Founded in July 2003, the organization sets the policies that govern development, operates critical infrastructure, and controls Mozilla trademarks and copyrights.<ref name=":0">Template:Citation</ref> It owns two taxable subsidiaries: the Mozilla Corporation, which employs many Mozilla developers and coordinates releases of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and MZLA Technologies Corporation, which employs developers to work on the Mozilla Thunderbird email client and coordinate its releases. The Mozilla Foundation was founded by the Netscape-affiliated Mozilla Organization.<ref name=":0" /> The organization is currently based in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California, United States.
The Mozilla Foundation describes itself as "a non-profit organization that promotes openness, innovation and participation on the Internet".<ref name="The Mozilla Foundation">Template:Cite web</ref> The Mozilla Foundation is guided by the Mozilla Manifesto, which lists 10 principles which Mozilla believes "are critical for the Internet to continue to benefit the public good as well as commercial aspects of life".<ref name="The Mozilla Manifesto">Template:Cite web</ref>
History
On February 23, 1998, Netscape created the Mozilla Organization to co-ordinate the development of the Mozilla Application Suite.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Mozilla Launch Announcement">Template:Cite web</ref> When AOL (Netscape's parent) drastically scaled back its involvement with Mozilla Organization, the Mozilla Foundation was launched on July 15, 2003, to ensure Mozilla could survive without Netscape. AOL assisted in the initial creation of the Mozilla Foundation, transferring hardware and intellectual property to the organization, employed a three-person team for the first three months of its existence to help with the transition, and donated $2 million to the foundation over two years.<ref name="Foundation Launch Announcement">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In September 2019, the Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, and Coil Technologies announced Grant for the Web, a $100 million fund designed to support the development of technologies, content, and ideas utilizing the Interledger Protocol.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Management of this fund was transferred to the Interledger Foundation in 2021.
On November 4, 2024, The Mozilla Foundation announced via email they had laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a "relentless onslaught of change."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Subsidiaries
Mozilla Corporation
On August 3, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced the creation of Mozilla Corporation, described as "a taxable subsidiary that serves the non-profit, public benefit goals of its parent, the Mozilla Foundation, and that will be responsible for product development, marketing and distribution of Mozilla products."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also handles relationships with businesses, many of which generate income. Unlike the Mozilla Foundation, the Mozilla Corporation is a tax-paying entity, giving it much greater freedom in its revenue and business activities. From 2004 to 2014, most revenue came from a deal with Google, the default search engine in the Firefox web browser. In November 2014, Mozilla signed a five-year partnership with Yahoo,<ref name="blog.mozilla.org">Template:Cite web</ref> making Yahoo! Search the default search engine for Firefox in the US. Yandex Search is the default for Firefox in Russia and Baidu continues its role as the default in China.
In November 2017, Mozilla terminated its agreement with Yahoo two years earlier than planned. While numerous factors were attributed to the decision to terminate the agreement, including some mention that Mozilla saw declining revenues related to the switch, likely the impetus was related to the recent acquisition of Yahoo by Verizon and Oath. Per Mozilla Chief Business and Legal Officer Denelle Dixon,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
"We exercised our contractual right to terminate our agreement with Yahoo! based on a number of factors including doing what's best for our brand, our effort to provide quality web search, and the broader content experience for our users. We believe there are opportunities to work with Oath and Verizon outside of search."
Mozilla China
Beijing Mozilla Online Ltd (Template:Lang-zh), Template:A.k.a. Mozilla China, was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Corporation.<ref>谋智网络是Mozilla Corporation在中国的全资子公司, 我们是Mozilla大家庭中非常重要的一份子——火狐浏览器 | 职业机会 Template:Webarchive</ref> Mozilla China is headquartered in Beijing.
MZLA Technologies Corporation
On January 28, 2020, the Mozilla Foundation announced that the Thunderbird project would henceforth be operating from a new wholly owned subsidiary, MZLA Technologies Corporation, in order to explore offering products and services that were not previously possible and to collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Mozilla Ventures
On November 2, 2022, Mozilla announced the establishment of Mozilla Ventures, an impact investing venture capital fund which "supports early-stage startups whose products or technologies advance the values in the Mozilla Manifesto."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was established with an initial US$35 million, and followed over a decade of prior investments by Mozilla into startups.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Financing
Template:Missing information The Mozilla Foundation is funded by donations and 2% of annual net revenues from the Mozilla Corporation, amounting to over US$8.3 million in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Initial funding in 2003 came from AOL, which donated US$2 million, and from Mitch Kapor who donated US$300,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The group has tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code, though the Mozilla Corporation subsidiary is taxable.
In 2006, the Mozilla Foundation received US$66.8 million in revenues, of which US$61.5 million is attributed to "search royalties" from Google.<ref name="2006 financial report">Template:Cite web</ref>
From 2004 to 2014, the foundation had a deal with Google to make Google Search the default in the Firefox browser search bar and hence send it search referrals; a Firefox-themed Google search site was also made the default home page of Firefox. The original contract expired in November 2006. However, Google renewed the contract until November 2008 and again through 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On December 20, 2011, Mozilla announced that the contract was once again renewed for at least three years to November 2014, at three times the amount previously paid, or nearly US$300 million annually.<ref name='Swisher'>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Approximately 90% of Mozilla's royalties revenue for 2014 was derived from this contract.<ref>Mozilla's 2014 Audited financial statement Template:Webarchive, page 21</ref>
In November 2014, Mozilla signed a five-year partnership (effective December 2014) with Yahoo!, making Yahoo! Search the default search engine for Firefox in North America. This partnership came with an annual price tag of US$375 million to be paid by Yahoo! or its acquirer in the event of an acquisition. There was also a clause stating that Mozilla reserved the right to terminate the deal early if it did not want to work with the acquirer, but the acquirer would still have to pay Mozilla the full sum per year until 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The default search engine in Russia will be Yandex, and in China, Baidu.<ref name="blog.mozilla.org" />
In November 2017, however, Mozilla announced<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> that it was switching back to Google as the default search engine. This represented an early termination of its Yahoo partnership.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
People
Nabiha Syed was named the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation on May 15, 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:As of, the Mozilla Foundation board of directors has nine members:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Nicole Wong (Chair)
- Brian Behlendorf
- Helen Turvey
- Amy Keating
- Mark Surman - also serves as the foundation's president
- Alondra Nelson
- Edwin Macharia
- Raffi Krikorian
- Zain Habboo
Donations
In 2006, after a request from Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD for funding from corporate entities that make a profit through the use of OpenSSH in their packaged distributions, the Mozilla Foundation donated $10,000 to de Raadt and OpenBSD for OpenSSH development. The funds donated came from money earned through the income provided by Google. The Mozilla Foundation found that without OpenSSH, much of the work done by developers would be through insecure and unsafe methods, and gave the funds as a thank you.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
At the end of 2010, the Mozilla Foundation partnered with Knoxville Zoo in an effort to raise awareness about endangered red pandas. Two red panda (a.k.a. Firefox) cubs born at the Knoxville Zoo have officially become a part of the Mozilla community. The cubs are named Spark and Ember by online voters, and Mozilla broadcast a 24-hour live video stream of the cubs for several months.<ref name="Meet the Newest (and Cutest) Mozillians">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Firefox Live Blog with Knoxville Zoo">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="@cubcaretaker on Twitter">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Firefox live">Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
Bibliography
External links
Template:Mozilla organisations Template:FOSS Template:Authority control
- 2003 establishments in the United States
- 501(c)(3) organizations
- Free software project foundations based in the United States
- Mountain View, California
- Mozilla
- Non-profit organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Organizations established in 2003
- Foundations based in the United States
- Internet-related activism