Mozilla Foundation sets up a corporate subsidiary |
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Thu, 04 Aug 2005 09:05
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SAN FRANCISCO: Open source programing organisation the Mozilla Foundation is turning part-corporate. The firm, better known for its Firefox browser and the scores of voluntary developers who work for it for free, is setting up a for-profit subsidiary to manage some of its existing non-profit operations.
The plan will help the group to focus on overseeing development of new products using open source technologies, said the Foundation's policy director Frank Hecker. To be named the Mozilla Corp., the new entity will be a wholly-owned subsidiary and will develop and deliver Mozilla's open-source products, such as the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client, including working on marketing and sponsorship activities. The Foundation will continue to handle community-related
activities, like formalizing the governance structures of the open-source project.
All profits of the company will be invested back into the Foundation's projects. "We still have the same goal, even if the work is done separately," Hecker said.
Mountain View-based Mozilla Foundation, established in 2003 by a group of executives from the Netscape division of America Online, depends on donations. The staff interacts with the volunteer programmers who are creating open source software codes for free.
Hecker said the Foundation had to take this step in order to overcome constraints put on it by tax laws while distributing the products. The Foundation has taken on Microsoft Corporation when it launched its Firefox web browser, a dependent alternative to the dominant Internet Explorer.
Firefox users are happy with the browser's security features. Firefox gained 8.7 per cent market share of web browser users in June, while Internet Explorer had 86.6 per cent market share.
Hecker said the subsidiary will not have venture funding. Nor will it go for an IPO, or issue stock options to its employees. It will have its own board, which will function under the Foundation's board and will be headed by Mitchell Baker, a former Netscape lawyer and the Foundation president. Brendan Eich, a foundation director, will be its chief technical officer.
Most of the 40 employees of the Foundation will shift to the new company, but the operations of the Mozilla project, which is now in the final stages of bringing out Firefox version 1.5, will be
unchanged.
In a blog posting, the Foundation said, apparently to allay the concerns of its voluntary developers: "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."
Chris Blizzard, one of the Foundation directors, who has now become an employee in the company, said people working for the for-profit entity would be paid "reasonable salaries," but no one would become millionaires from the compensation they receive. "We're not set up that way," said Blizzard.
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