Anthony wrote:
On 10/23/07, Brion Vibber <brion(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
For comparison, see the Mozilla Foundation's
update on their finances:
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/10/beyond_sustainabil…
Their expenditures are much higher than ours, with a different balance
(more people, less hosting), and their revenue is much, *much* bigger --
and almost all from a single partnership with Google.
That's a combination of Mozilla Foundation *and* Mozilla Corporation,
which makes it incredibly misleading.
Not particularly misleading, since Mozilla Corporation was spun out for
financial reasons. In a similar situation (receiving most money from a
commercial source), we might well do something similar.
It's cool
that they're riding high on the Google wave, but it's also a
precarious position; if Google pulled out, they'd lose almost all their
revenue.
If Google pulled out, they'd find someone else to pay big bucks to be
the default search in Firefox. And it's not like they'd lose revenue
while looking for someone new - surely they renegotiate these
contracts months before they expire.
You seem to be implying that this revenue from Google is a donation.
It's not. It's Google paying Mozilla Corporation (not Mozilla
Foundation) to get tons of traffic by being the default search
provider.
You seem to be implying that no lessons can be learned from looking at
other organizations. :)
-- brion