Looking Into Mozilla's Financial Success

NewsCloud writes "'Thanks to the Google agreement, the Mozilla Foundation went from revenue of nearly $6 million in 2004 to more than $52 million the next year [similar revenue is expected in 2006]...In 2005, the foundation created a subsidiary, the for-profit Mozilla Corporation,...mainly to deal with the tax and other issues related to the Google contract...By creating a corporation to run the Firefox project, Mozilla was committing to be less transparent. In part, that is because Google insists on the secrecy of "its arrangement and agreements," said board member Mitch Kapor.' The NYT article compares this approach to Wikipedia's ongoing fundraisers and raises the issue of transparency in open source projects. i.e. should Firefox's 1,000 to 2,000 developers and 80,000 evangelists have full knowledge of how revenue is spent as well as the extent to which Google is able to influence strategy vs. other stakeholders."

Comments

amusing

[Red Flayer]

FTA:

Finally, there is the problem of what Mozilla should do with the money, at least the portion that isn't being reinvested in the Firefox.

Yes, well, bring that up on the Slashdot if you want some suggestions on where to spend the money. Maybe even ask the Google about it, since that's where the money came from.

I don't know why use of "the" here amuses me so much, but it makes the author seem very unfamiliar with the companies and products they are writing about.

Re:amusing

[eln]

The correct thing for anyone to do when encountered with a sudden massive increase in wealth is to write a ridiculous article about it. That way, with any luck, the article can go from merely silly to pants-wettingly hilarious when the money goes up in smoke later.

Google's new Motto

[Anonymous Coward]

Do slightly less evil than Microsoft

Well....

[InfiniteSingularity]

Do slightly less evil than Microsoft

Aren't we all?

Re:Whom should be considered the forker?

[R2.0]

Did anyone else read that as
"a path of secret agreements, proprietary code, and G-strings attached sponsorship"?

Anyone?

(Man, I need to get laid more often)