The Mozilla Foundation announced yesterday the launch of a wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. The funds generated by the Mozilla Corporation can help the non-profit Mozilla Foundation in areas such as product development.
The new Mozilla Corporation is roughly 36 people strong, most moving from the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation is left with three employees.
The Mozilla team are keen to outline that many things will not change. We won't start paying for Firefox, distribution of it won't be limited, and interaction with the community will continue to take place based on the guidelines set out by the Mozilla Foundation. Developers and contributors can continue as they were, with the same policies in effect.
What does the industry think to the formation of the Corporation? According to a ZDNet story it's looking good. James Governor, analyst for RedMonk, said to ZDNet that "Almost all open-source organizations that are successful have some commercial organization around them."
So, the Mozilla Foundation will wholly own the new subsidiary and the community should be kept happy as a result. Meanwhile, this presents a new opportunity for Mozilla to generate revenue to further development, and also encourage businesses to adopt Mozilla products. Is this the year of the Firefox?
Links
Mozilla Foundation Reorganisation FAQ
Mozilla Foundation Press Release
