Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser, laid off approximately 60 employees this week as it looks to refocus its efforts on Firefox and bring artificial intelligence technology into its products.
The job cuts amount to around 5% of Mozilla’s workforce and hit mainly product development team members. An internal memo detailed that Mozilla will be scaling back resources for several standalone privacy products like its VPN, Relay service, and recently announced Online Footprint Scrubber.The organisation will also shut down Hubs, its 3D virtual world offering, and downsize its Mastodon presence named mozilla.social.
Instead of investing in multiple areas, Mozilla plans to focus its investment on Firefox and opportunities related to trustworthy AI implementation. This will involve merging teams that work on its Pocket content recommendation engine, general web content operations, and AI/machine learning.
After years of attempting to expand its product catalogue beyond it, the Firefox browser is now Mozilla’s central offering, which has steadily declined in market share. As noted in the internal memo, “Firefox, after all, provided the vast majority of Mozilla’s income, but it also meant the organisation was essentially dependent on Google to continue this deal.”
A Mozilla spokesperson said, “We’re scaling back investment in some product areas to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success. To do so, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 60 roles from across the company.”
They added, “We intend to re-prioritize resources towards products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”
The restructuring and renewed Firefox focus follows the appointment of Laura Chambers, a former executive at Airbnb and eBay, as the company’s interim CEO just last week. Chambers has taken over the leadership duties from Mozilla’s long-time CEO, Mitchell Baker, who now serves as the company’s Executive Chairwoman.
The job cuts amount to around 5% of Mozilla’s workforce and hit mainly product development team members. An internal memo detailed that Mozilla will be scaling back resources for several standalone privacy products like its VPN, Relay service, and recently announced Online Footprint Scrubber.The organisation will also shut down Hubs, its 3D virtual world offering, and downsize its Mastodon presence named mozilla.social.
Instead of investing in multiple areas, Mozilla plans to focus its investment on Firefox and opportunities related to trustworthy AI implementation. This will involve merging teams that work on its Pocket content recommendation engine, general web content operations, and AI/machine learning.
After years of attempting to expand its product catalogue beyond it, the Firefox browser is now Mozilla’s central offering, which has steadily declined in market share. As noted in the internal memo, “Firefox, after all, provided the vast majority of Mozilla’s income, but it also meant the organisation was essentially dependent on Google to continue this deal.”
A Mozilla spokesperson said, “We’re scaling back investment in some product areas to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success. To do so, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 60 roles from across the company.”
They added, “We intend to re-prioritize resources towards products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”
The restructuring and renewed Firefox focus follows the appointment of Laura Chambers, a former executive at Airbnb and eBay, as the company’s interim CEO just last week. Chambers has taken over the leadership duties from Mozilla’s long-time CEO, Mitchell Baker, who now serves as the company’s Executive Chairwoman.
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