Firefox Maker Mozilla Is Cutting 60 Jobs After Naming New CEO
Mozilla said that the move affects about 5% of its workforce and that the cuts were primarily in the product development organization. The company informed employees of the decision on Tuesday.
“We’re scaling back investment in some product areas in order to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success,” Mozilla said in a statement. “We intend to re-prioritize resources against products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”
The move comes a week after the company named Laura Chambers as its CEO. She’s a former Airbnb Inc. and eBay Inc. executive who joined Mozilla’s board three years ago. Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s longtime chief, stepped down to become the company’s executive chairman.
Mozilla last cut a significant number of jobs four years ago at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The not-for-profit company, which competes with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Chrome, Apple Inc.’s Safari and Microsoft Corp.’s Edge, has been grappling with sliding market share of its Firefox web browser in recent years.
Ed: Baker's annual salary could cover all of these people's wages, and unlike her, they actually did something
Update
More here:
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Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI: Read the memo | TechCrunch
After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is making some major changes to its product strategy, TechCrunch has learned.
Specifically, Mozilla plans to scale back its investment in a number of products, including its VPN, Relay and, somewhat remarkably, its Online Footprint Scrubber, which launched only a week ago. Mozilla will also shut down Hubs, the 3D virtual world it launched back in 2018, and scale back its investment in its mozilla.social Mastodon instance. The layoffs will affect roughly 60 employees. Bloomberg previously reported the layoffs.
Going forward, the company said in an internal memo, Mozilla will focus on bringing “trustworthy AI into Firefox.” To do so, it will bring together the teams that work on Pocket, Content and AI/Ml.
OMG Ubuntu:
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Mozilla Announces Layoffs, Renews Focus on Firefox
The non-profit says it is scaling back development on a number of projects and, as a result, 60 employees (roughly 5% of its total workforce) will lose their jobs.
Among projects TechCrunch reports Mozilla has earmarked for cutbacks is its Online Footprint Scrubber — a paid-for feature announced barely a week ago!
Mozilla VPN, Relay and other privacy products are also being scaled back, with the company of the opinion those products don’t offer much differentiation with competitors, and are struggling as a result.
One more:
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Mozilla lays off 60 of its workforce, will now concentrate on Hey Hi (AI) for Firefox