3 ms·

And Thunderbird?

kbrosnan 1y ago
It is the MZLA Technologies Corporation a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation a wholly owned part of the Mozilla Foundation.
- edoceo 1y ago
  How did they even get this corporation owned by a foundation situation? That just seems like some kind of tax trick.
  - boomboomsubban 1y ago
    Yes. Mozilla was originally only the non profit, but it was ruled that selling the search rights violated nonprofit status. So they paid a couple million in back taxes and had to spin off a corporate entity that's fully owned by the nonprofit.
    - Henchman21 1y ago
      Do you have any info on this lawsuit? I am struggling to find it.
      - boomboomsubban 1y ago
        It wasn't a lawsuit, the IRS audited them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#IRS_audit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#IRS_audit
        Henchman21 1y ago
        Thank you!
  - thayne 1y ago
    It's a "we want to sell something, but non-profits aren't allowed to do that" trick. And it means the for-profit subsidiary has to pay normal taxes. OpenAI is structured the same way, so they can sell access to their models. At least until it switches to being entirely for-profit, if that is allowed to happen.
  - no_wizard 1y ago
    Novo Norodisk has a similar corporate structure, being owned majority by the Novodisk Foundation[0] [0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisks-unique-structure-gives-it-an-extra-edge--and-risk-110030324.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisks-unique-structur...
alfiedotwtf 1y ago
Last time I heard, Thunderbird has zero people on it for years but eventually they manage to afford to pay someone part time to work on it :smh:
- raxxorraxor 1y ago
  I did change quite significantly in recent times, so there is certainly work done. On the other hand it is a mail client and it does exactly what it is supposed to do for years on end. And I believe it is the best mail client too.
- e2le 1y ago
  Thunderbird is quite healthy and received $8.6M in donations in 2023[0] which is used to employ 24 people[1]. Unlike Firefox, donations are used to fund development. [0]: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/10/thunderbird-annual-report-2023-2024/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/10/thunderbird-annual-repo... [1]: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving-our-2022-financial-report/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving...
  - alfiedotwtf 1y ago
    To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised. Thanks for the info.
  - godshatter 1y ago
    I guess what we need is a non-profit fork of Firefox that takes donations directly and focuses only on the browser.
major505 1y ago
My guess. is going to be sold to a tech giant, and probably extinct. Maybe Microsoft buy it and rename as outlook for Linux.

And Thunderbird?

It is the MZLA Technologies Corporation a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation a wholly owned part of the Mozilla Foundation.

edoceo 1y ago
How did they even get this corporation owned by a foundation situation? That just seems like some kind of tax trick.
- boomboomsubban 1y ago
  Yes. Mozilla was originally only the non profit, but it was ruled that selling the search rights violated nonprofit status. So they paid a couple million in back taxes and had to spin off a corporate entity that's fully owned by the nonprofit.
  - Henchman21 1y ago
    Do you have any info on this lawsuit? I am struggling to find it.
    - boomboomsubban 1y ago
      It wasn't a lawsuit, the IRS audited them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#IRS_audit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#IRS_audit
      - Henchman21 1y ago
        Thank you!
- thayne 1y ago
  It's a "we want to sell something, but non-profits aren't allowed to do that" trick. And it means the for-profit subsidiary has to pay normal taxes. OpenAI is structured the same way, so they can sell access to their models. At least until it switches to being entirely for-profit, if that is allowed to happen.
- no_wizard 1y ago
  Novo Norodisk has a similar corporate structure, being owned majority by the Novodisk Foundation[0] [0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisks-unique-structure-gives-it-an-extra-edge--and-risk-110030324.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novo-nordisks-unique-structur...

alfiedotwtf 1y ago

Last time I heard, Thunderbird has zero people on it for years but eventually they manage to afford to pay someone part time to work on it :smh:

raxxorraxor 1y ago
I did change quite significantly in recent times, so there is certainly work done. On the other hand it is a mail client and it does exactly what it is supposed to do for years on end. And I believe it is the best mail client too.
e2le 1y ago
Thunderbird is quite healthy and received $8.6M in donations in 2023[0] which is used to employ 24 people[1]. Unlike Firefox, donations are used to fund development. [0]: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/10/thunderbird-annual-report-2023-2024/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2024/10/thunderbird-annual-repo... [1]: https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving-our-2022-financial-report/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving...
- alfiedotwtf 1y ago
  To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised. Thanks for the info.
- godshatter 1y ago
  I guess what we need is a non-profit fork of Firefox that takes donations directly and focuses only on the browser.

major505 1y ago

My guess. is going to be sold to a tech giant, and probably extinct. Maybe Microsoft buy it and rename as outlook for Linux.