Mozilla Foundation crumbles as third of staff cast off

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2024-11-06 05:00:03

The Mozilla Foundation is laying off about a third of its staff. The non-profit org, which oversees the corporation that develops the Firefox web browser, insists it will continue its advocacy mission, though its approach may change.

"The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all," said Brandon Borrman, VP of Communications at Mozilla, in a statement to The Register Tuesday.

"That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward. We're not sharing a specific number, but it represents about 30 percent of the current team."

While Mozilla Foundation declined to quantify the number of people being let go, it reported 60 employees on its 2022 Form 990 disclosure [PDF], which was filed November 15, 2023. The Register understands the current headcount is closer to 120, so presumably around 36 people stand to lose their jobs.

Mozilla Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit advocacy organization that runs subsidiaries Mozilla Corporation (the Firefox browser and other consumer products); Mozilla Ventures (a tech-for-good investment fund); Mozilla.ai, an AI R&D lab; and MZLA, which maintains the Thunderbird email client.