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Mozilla explains their recent foray into advertising - A free and open internet shouldn’t come at the expense of privacy (blog.mozilla.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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MARK SURMAN, PRESIDENT, MOZILLA Keeping the internet, and the content that makes it a vital and vibrant part of our global society, free and accessible has

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Netscape, which was essentially the predecessor to Mozilla, was a well funded VC-backed startup. That’s how they did it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

and only now the investors are asking for their return? Or the investors aren't re-investing and that's the problem?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@tetris11 @GnuLinuxDude

Netscape exited to AOL in 1998. The Netscape founder Marc Andreessen has since then been a successful venture capitalist who loves cryptocurrencies and Donald Trump.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

oh dear

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

@tetris11 @GnuLinuxDude

Mozilla Corporation -- which makes Firefox -- is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit.

A nonprofit can't generate a lot of business income unrelated to its mission. Firefox used to generate a lot of income, so it had to be spun off into a taxable entity called Mozilla Corporation.

The corporation doesn't have investors in the usual sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Christ that's a messy inheritance model. Hopefully Firefox will be spun off to, and will have to focus solely on the browser.