5 ms·

Mozilla consists of a non-profit foundation and a for-profit corporation. It is the corporation which develops the browser, and Google pays the corporation.

dizhn 3y ago
Do you have a source for this? I found an old source that says they pay the foundation.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  A quick look at the Wikipedia article for the corporation says that Google pays the corporation: "In 2006, the Mozilla Corporation generated $66.8 million in revenue and $19.8 million in expenses, with 85% of that revenue coming from Google for "assigning [Google] as the browser's default search engine, and for click-throughs on ads placed on the ensuing search results pages." Sources linked there like [0], albeit quite old now, mention only the corporation and not the foundation. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2011/12/5/2612918/future-of-firefoxs-google-search-partnership-remains-uncertain https://www.theverge.com/2011/12/5/2612918/future-of-firefox...
- zo1 3y ago
  Not OP. The problem is compounded by the fact that all the released financial and audit reports seem to "consolidate" the flow of money between the foundation (non-profit parent company) and the corporation (for-profit owned subsidiary). So it's just seen as income, and we have no idea how accounting-wise they get the money, and how it presumably "flows out" to the foundation. Who knows how much "licensing costs" the corporation pays the foundation as a way of extracting the money up. E.g.: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-2021-fs-final-1010.pdf https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-202... "All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated."
  - dizhn 3y ago
    It almost seems like they are conflating things on purpose. They mostly use the name Mozilla without specifying which it is. Actually I was trying to find sources now and reporters seem to be doing the exact same thing. We know they are paying large sums to the top executives. Is the corporation paying this or the foundation? You cannot donate to the corporation so maybe the donations alone (without google money) is enough for their expenses. It's more consufing because if I am not mistaken the top execs of the corp are also top execs of the foundation. Regardless, since one owns the other, they probably have legal ways to move money around. Excluding the people who are actually trying to build a browser, the whole organization is super suspect. As far as I know they never respond to criticism either.

dizhn 3y ago

Do you have a source for this? I found an old source that says they pay the foundation.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
A quick look at the Wikipedia article for the corporation says that Google pays the corporation: "In 2006, the Mozilla Corporation generated $66.8 million in revenue and $19.8 million in expenses, with 85% of that revenue coming from Google for "assigning [Google] as the browser's default search engine, and for click-throughs on ads placed on the ensuing search results pages." Sources linked there like [0], albeit quite old now, mention only the corporation and not the foundation. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2011/12/5/2612918/future-of-firefoxs-google-search-partnership-remains-uncertain https://www.theverge.com/2011/12/5/2612918/future-of-firefox...
zo1 3y ago
Not OP. The problem is compounded by the fact that all the released financial and audit reports seem to "consolidate" the flow of money between the foundation (non-profit parent company) and the corporation (for-profit owned subsidiary). So it's just seen as income, and we have no idea how accounting-wise they get the money, and how it presumably "flows out" to the foundation. Who knows how much "licensing costs" the corporation pays the foundation as a way of extracting the money up. E.g.: https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-2021-fs-final-1010.pdf https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2021/mozilla-fdn-202... "All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated."
- dizhn 3y ago
  It almost seems like they are conflating things on purpose. They mostly use the name Mozilla without specifying which it is. Actually I was trying to find sources now and reporters seem to be doing the exact same thing. We know they are paying large sums to the top executives. Is the corporation paying this or the foundation? You cannot donate to the corporation so maybe the donations alone (without google money) is enough for their expenses. It's more consufing because if I am not mistaken the top execs of the corp are also top execs of the foundation. Regardless, since one owns the other, they probably have legal ways to move money around. Excluding the people who are actually trying to build a browser, the whole organization is super suspect. As far as I know they never respond to criticism either.