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Mozilla is shifting priorities and laying off 250 employees

By Rado Minkov

Published: Aug 12, 2020, 5:16 AM

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Mozilla is shifting priorities and laying off 250 employees

Due to its decreased revenue during the global pandemic, Mozilla Corporation, the company behind the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client has been struggling financially for a while. Yesterday, a blog post from its CEO was shared online, announcing new plans for the company that are meant to restore its financial viability.

Published by Chairwoman and CEO Mitchell Baker, the blog post starts with a defining statement: "This is a time of change for the internet and for Mozilla." It then continues:

Mozilla exists so the internet can help the world collectively meet the range of challenges a moment like this presents. Firefox is a part of this. But we know we also need to go beyond the browser to give people new products and technologies that both excite them and represent their interests. Over the last while, it has been clear that Mozilla is not structured properly to create these new things — and to build the better internet we all deserve.

The needed restructuring in question is said to involve giving internet users alternatives to "conventional Big Tech", but also results in the layoffs of approximately 250 Mozilla employees. An internal message from Baker, later publicly shared in the blog post, also informs of said restructuring, layoffs, and expresses regret for the necessary reduction of Mozilla's workforce.

Both messages re-confirm that Mozilla is suffering from lower revenue due to the global pandemic, thus desperate measures needed to be taken in order to keep the company afloat.

So going forward we will be smaller. We’ll also be organizing ourselves very differently, acting more quickly and nimbly. We’ll experiment more. We’ll adjust more quickly. We’ll join with allies outside of our organization more often and more effectively. We’ll meet people where they are. We’ll become great at expressing and building our core values into products and programs that speak to today’s issues. We’ll join and build with all those who seek openness, decency, empowerment and common good in online life.

For the coming months, the company wants to focus on its more financially successful Firefox browser, while reducing its investments into other, less viable projects such as developer tools. Nevertheless, Mozilla will invest in security and privacy products it deems to be financially viable, such as VPN (Virtual Private Networks).

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Rado is a former tech writer for PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.