Mozilla creates a for-profit corporation [LWN.net]

The Mozilla Foundation has announced the creation of the Mozilla Corporation, a for-profit company which will take over the development of Firefox and Thunderbird. Most Foundation employees will move over to the corporation. "As the Mozilla Foundation focuses on the project's governance, infrastructure and source code, the Mozilla Corporation will focus on developing and delivering end-user products, including marketing, sponsorships and a range of distribution-related activities. These activities are also expected to generate revenue, but the Mozilla Corporation only intends to pursue those that fit with the Mozilla project's focus on end-user experience and are consistent with the public benefit goals of the parent Mozilla Foundation."

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Mozilla creates a for-profit corporation

Posted Aug 3, 2005 20:28 UTC (Wed) by lutchann (subscriber, #8872) [Link]

The MozillaZine article is much more informative:

http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=7085

Basically, the Mozilla Foundation found that there were a lot of business opportunies that they couldn't take advantage of because of their non-profit status, so the Mozilla Corporation was created to provide a venue for revenue-generating activities using Mozilla Foundation resources--presumably, renting their employees' time to help third-party companies integrate Mozilla code into their own software. Since the Corporation is wholly owned by the Foundation, there won't be any changes to the "core mission" or commitment to the community, just more opportunities to get ca$h to fund Mozilla development.