Mozilla Corporation

The Mozilla Corporation is a company owned by the Mozilla Foundation. It helps create and improve Internet tools, such as the Firefox web browser. Many people from around the world work together to build these tools, and some of them are employed by the Mozilla Corporation. This company is different from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation because it operates as a business that aims to make a profit.

Even though the Mozilla Corporation is a for-profit company, it uses all of its earnings to support the work of the Mozilla Foundation. Its main goal is to help the Foundation's mission of supporting choice and new ideas on the Internet. This means that instead of keeping money for itself, the company puts all its profits back into developing better Internet products and services.

The Mozilla Foundation keeps full control over the Mozilla Corporation. This includes owning all trademarks and intellectual property and deciding who can add changes to the project's code. The Corporation cannot sell shares or be taken over by another company, ensuring that it remains focused on its purpose of improving the Internet for everyone.

Establishment

The Mozilla Corporation was created on August 3, 2005, to help the Mozilla Foundation with money-related work. Because the Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit group, it has limits on how much money it can earn. The Mozilla Corporation, being a for-profit company, does not have these limits. When it started, the Mozilla Corporation took over jobs like organizing the making of Firefox and Thunderbird with help from a global community of developers and managing relationships with businesses.

After the Mozilla Corporation was created, the Mozilla Foundation focused more on guiding the project's rules and policies. In November 2005, when Mozilla Firefox 1.5 was released, the Mozilla Corporation's website at mozilla.com became the new online home for the Firefox and Thunderbird products. In 2006, the Mozilla Corporation made $66.8 million and spent $19.8 million, with most of the money coming from Google for being the default search engine in the browser and for ads shown with search results.

Mozilla Taiwan was a branch of the corporation started on October 19, 2011, to support Mozilla products in Taiwan. It stopped working on August 11, 2020, because of big changes in the parent company.

Finances

Most of the money Mozilla Corporation gets comes from Google. In 2024, about 86% of their income was from Google for being the default search engine in the Firefox web browser.

Notable events

In March 2006, there was a rumor that Mozilla Corporation made a lot of money the year before, mostly because of a deal with Google. Later, a board member explained that while the numbers were not exact, they were in the right ballpark. In 2006, it was reported that Google paid Mozilla around $57 million to be the default search engine in Firefox. This deal was extended several times over the years.

In August 2006, Microsoft invited Mozilla to work together to make sure Mozilla software worked well with the new Windows Vista operating system. Mozilla agreed to this meeting.

In March 2014, Mozilla faced some criticism when they chose a new CEO. Some people were unhappy with this choice for personal reasons, and a few board members left. Shortly after, the CEO decided to step down. A new CEO was named later that year.

In February 2017, Mozilla bought a service called Pocket, which helped people save and organize web pages. Later, Mozilla announced they would stop Pocket in July 2025, giving users time to save their data.

Mozilla has made several changes over the years, including focusing on new technologies and adjusting its team to meet its goals. In May 2023, Mozilla bought a company called Fakespot, which helped identify fake product reviews online. In February 2024, Mozilla announced changes to focus more on artificial intelligence features in its products. In December 2025, a new CEO was announced to lead Mozilla Corporation.

Affiliations

Google

Mozilla Corporation has a well-known relationship with Google. Originally, Google was the default search engine in Firefox browsers. After the initial agreement ended in 2011, Mozilla made a new deal with Google. This deal brought in almost a billion dollars over three years, keeping Google as the default search engine until 2017. Other search engines like Bing, Yahoo!, Yandex, Baidu, Amazon.com, and eBay also worked with Firefox.

In 2022, Google provided 81% of Mozilla’s income. Some people worried about privacy because Firefox used Google’s servers for anti-phishing protection, sending some data to Google. In 2024, there were concerns that new rules might affect Google’s deals with Mozilla.

Yahoo

In November 2014, Mozilla agreed to make Yahoo the default search engine in Firefox for five years in the US. However, after Yahoo was bought by Verizon in 2017, Mozilla ended this deal early and returned to using Google as the default search engine. Mozilla earned $375 million each year from this Yahoo agreement but received $338 million in 2019 after settling with Verizon.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s leaders originally did not see Firefox as a threat. Over time, Microsoft added features to its Internet Explorer browser that were already in Firefox, like tabbed browsing. Despite some disagreements, the teams from Microsoft and Mozilla met to discuss web standards. In special occasions, the Internet Explorer team even sent cakes to Mozilla to celebrate Firefox releases.

IRS audit

The Internal Revenue Service checked Mozilla Foundation’s finances for 2004-2005 because of its income from search agreements. Later, they also looked at 2006 and 2007 but finished that part. In November 2012, the audit ended, and Mozilla Foundation had to pay $1.5 million to the IRS.

People

Many people who worked for the Mozilla Foundation moved to the Mozilla Corporation when it started.

Board of directors

The board of directors is chosen by and reports to the Mozilla Foundation’s board. In March 2014, half of the board members left. The remaining members at that time included:

• Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman
• Julie Hanna^{[self-published source]}
• Karim Lakhani^{[self-published source]}
• Laura Chambers

By 2025, the board members were:

• Kerry W. Cooper, Chair of the Compensation Committee and Member of the Audit Committee
• Laura Chambers
• Bob Lisbonne, Chair of the Audit Committee and Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
• Hugh Molotsi, Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and Member of the Compensation Committee
• Kristin Skogen Lund, member of the Audit Committee
• Mark Surman

Management team

The senior management team includes:

• Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, CEO
• John Solomon, CMO
• Peter Rojas, SVP of New Products
• Eric Muhlheim, CFO
• Carlos Torres, Chief Legal Officer

Notable current employees

• Gian-Carlo Pascutto
• Julian Seward
• Tantek Çelik

Notable past employees

• Brendan Eich, former CEO of Mozilla Corporation, inventor of JavaScript (now CEO of Brave)
• John Lilly, former CEO of Mozilla Corporation
• Christopher Blizzard, former Open Source Evangelist (now at Facebook)
• John Resig, former Technical Evangelist (now at Khan Academy)
• Mike Schroepfer, former VP of Engineering (now at Facebook)
• Mike Shaver, former VP of Technical Strategy (now at Shopify)
• Window Snyder, former Chief Security Officer (now at Square, Inc.)
• Ellen Siminoff, former board member, also President and CEO of Shmoop University and Chair of Efficient Frontier
• Li Gong, president of Mozilla Corporation until 2015
• Andreas Gal, former CTO (now at Apple)
• Johnny Stenback, former engineering director (now at Google Chrome)
• John Hammink
• Tristan Nitot