The Mozilla Foundation, the organization behind the Firefox browser, is letting almost 30 percent of its employees go. This round of layoffs follows previous cuts within the Firefox team.

The Mozilla Foundation is making significant staff cuts. The nonprofit, whose best-known product is the Firefox browser, confirmed to The Register that about thirty percent of its workforce will be leaving.

The Mozilla Group consists of several departments. Mozilla Corporation is the subsidiary that manages the Firefox browser. There’s also Mozilla Ventures, Mozilla.ai, a research lab, and MZLA, which runs the Thunderbird email client. All subsidiaries are managed by the non-profit parent company.

Not for profit, but a little

While Mozilla is far from the first tech company to let people go in 2024, there have been rumors within the organization for some time. In February, the Firefox division laid off about sixty employees and the CEO resigned. The group’s slogan is “Internet for people, not for profit,” but the company still needs more revenue to achieve this mission.

The new CEO faces the difficult task of capturing a larger share of the advertising pie without abandoning this philosophy. A new system that Firefox rolled out over the summer to replace cookies isn’t as privacy-friendly as Mozilla is selling it, activists say.

Mozilla confirms that the layoffs will have no impact on the organization’s principles and operations. It will continue its mission of pursuing an open Internet, a spokesperson emphasized to The Register.