Mozilla Corporation
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| Mozilla Corporation | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | Mountain View, California (2005) |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Key people | John Lilly, CEO |
| Products | Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Thunderbird more... |
| Employees | 100+ |
| Subsidiaries | Mozilla Online (China) |
| Website | mozilla.com |
The Mozilla Corporation (abbreviated MoCo) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client by the growing global community of open-source developers, only some of whom are employed by the corporation itself. The corporation also distributes and promotes these products. Unlike the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, the Mozilla Corporation is a taxable entity. In contrast to most commercial organizations, the Mozilla Corporation is not motivated by a desire for profit, reinvesting all profits back into the Mozilla projects.[1] The Mozilla Corporation aims to work towards the Mozilla Foundation's public benefit to "promote choice and innovation on the Internet."[2]
As explained in a MozillaZine article: "The Mozilla Foundation will ultimately control the activities of the Mozilla Corporation and will retain its 100 percent ownership of the new subsidiary. Any profits made by the Mozilla Corporation will be invested back into the Mozilla project. There will be no shareholders, no stock options will be issued and no dividends will be paid. The Mozilla Corporation will not be floating on the stock market and it will be impossible for any company to take over or buy a stake in the subsidiary. The Mozilla Foundation will continue to own the Mozilla trademarks and other intellectual property and will license them to the Mozilla Corporation. The Foundation will also continue to govern the source code repository and control who is allowed to check in."
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[edit] Establishment
The Mozilla Corporation was established on August 3, 2005 to handle the revenue-related operations of the Mozilla Foundation. As a non-profit, the Mozilla Foundation is limited in terms of the types and amounts of revenue. The Mozilla Corporation, as a taxable organization (essentially, a commercial operation), does not have to comply with such strict rules. Upon its creation, the Mozilla Corporation took over several areas from the Mozilla Foundation, including coordination and integration of the development of Firefox and Thunderbird (by the global free software community) and the management of relationships with businesses.
With the creation of the Mozilla Corporation, the rest of the Mozilla Foundation narrowed its focus to concentrate on the Mozilla project's governance and policy issues. In November 2005, with the release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5, the Mozilla Corporation's website at mozilla.com was unveiled as the new home of the Firefox and Thunderbird products online.
[edit] Notable events
In March 2006, Weblogs, Inc. founder Jason Calacanis reported a rumor on his blog that Mozilla Corporation gained $72M during the previous year, mainly thanks to the Google search box in the Firefox browser.[3] The rumor was later addressed by Christopher Blizzard, a member of the Mozilla board, who wrote on his blog that "it’s not correct, though not off by an order of magnitude".[4]
In August 2006, Microsoft posted a letter on Mozilla newsgroups[5] and offered to open up a new open-source facility at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to Mozilla software engineers. Mozilla responded by accepting the offer.[6]
On September 6, 2006 the Mozilla Corporation hired Window Snyder, former security strategist at Microsoft.[7]
On October 25, 2006 Mozilla released the latest version of Firefox 2.0 which included changes to the graphical interface, the addition of an anti-phishing filter, inline spell checking, live titles, and session restore.
[edit] People
The Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors is appointed by and responsible to the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors:
- Mitchell Baker (Chair)
- Reid Hoffman, former CEO of LinkedIn
- John Lilly, CEO
- Ellen Siminoff, President and CEO of Shmoop University and Chairman of Efficient Frontier
The Mozilla Corporation management team includes:
- John Lilly, CEO
- Brendan Eich, CTO
- Chris Beard, VP of Labs
- Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering
- Paul Kim, VP of Marketing
- Harvey Anderson, VP, General Counsel
Other notable employees include (in alphabetical order):
- Christopher Blizzard, formerly of Red Hat
- Dave Camp
- Neil Deakin
- Asa Dotzler
- Dave Miller, lead developer of Bugzilla
- Aza Raskin
- John Resig, developer of jQuery
- Mike Shaver
- Window Snyder
- Johnny Stenbäck
At the time of the Mozilla Corporation's creation, most of the Mozilla Foundation employees were transferred to the new organization.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Mozilla Foundation Reorganization
- ^ http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2005-08-03.html Mozilla press release: "Mozilla Foundation Forms New Organization to Further the Creation of Free, Open Source Internet Software, Including the Award-Winning Mozilla Firefox Browser"
- ^ Calacanis blog: "Firefox (Mozilla Corporation/Mozilla Foundation) made $72M last year?!"
- ^ OxDeadBeef.com: "apply pinky to corner of mouth"
- ^ Google Groups: "mozilla.dev.planning Microsoft offer"
- ^ CNet.com: "Microsoft offers helping hand to Firefox"
- ^ Computer World.com: "Mozilla taps former Microsoft executive for security strategy."
- Mozilla Foundation Forms New Organization to Further the Creation of Free, Open Source Internet Software, Including the Award-Winning Mozilla Firefox Browser. Mozilla Press Center. Retrieved on August 3, 2005.
- Mozilla Foundation Announces Creation of Mozilla Corporation. MozillaZine. Retrieved on August 3, 2005.
[edit] External links
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