14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has decided to let go approximately 70 employees, citing the slow progress of its subscription products as the main reason.
Mozilla chairwoman and interim CEO Mitchell Baker explains In an internal memo sent to the staff that the number of employees being laid off could be “slightly larger,” as similar restructuring could also take place in France and the United Kingdom.
“Reducing our headcount was something the Steering Committee considered as part of our 2020 planning and budgeting exercise only after all other avenues were explored. The final decision was made just before the holiday break with the work to finalize the exact set of roles affected continuing into early January (there are exceptions in the UK and France where we are consulting on decisions),” the memo obtained by TechCrunch reads.
$43 million for new products
Mozilla has previously tried to generate more sources of revenue in addition to the search partnerships that are mostly powered by Firefox browser. For example, Mozilla has been testing a VPN service that would come with a $4.99 fee per month, but the public launch is yet to be announced.
As a result, Mozilla says, its plans to generate more money failed to come true, and it’s now forced to turn to job cuts to “work within the limits of our core finances,” as the Mozilla official explains in a blog post on the company’s site.
“You may recall that we expected to be earning revenue in 2019 and 2020 from new subscription products as well as higher revenue from sources outside of search. This did not happen. Our 2019 plan underestimated how long it would take to build and ship new, revenue-generating products. Given that, and all we learned in 2019 about the pace of innovation, we decided to take a more conservative approach to projecting our revenue for 2020. We also agreed to a principle of living within our means, of not spending more than we earn for the foreseeable future,” Baker further notes in the memo.
Mozilla says it has allocated $43 million specifically for the creation of new products, but further information on its projects would be announced at a later time.