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Comment by lexicality | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how many developer layoffs they could have avoided by not buying yet another company unrelated to the browser market. Then again I'm not a Mozilla executive with an average salary >$200k a year so what do I know.

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Eh, seems like CEO salary is more like > 3 million: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30665913

Don't worry, I'm sure they're gonna make it related to the browser market by trying to push it on Firefox users. In case it was truly an acqui-hire, I suppose those devs are worth a lot more than the Mozilla devs they let go? Or maybe it was just nepotism.

Mozilla acts like an organisation that has given up on Firefox and is pining around for their next thing.

Mozilla Corporation — who basically just do Firefox — is a separate entity from the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla Corporation gets commercial investment to pay Firefox developers, so that the Mozilla Foundation doesn't need to pay or invest in it for it to do its thing.

This fire-wall (heh) ensures that Mozilla Foundation can never be said to be being influenced by corporate interests. All the corporate money stays inside Mozilla Corporation, i.e. inside Firefox.

You’re thinking of Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation. There is no Firefox Corporation.

I feel like this arrangement is probably because Firefox is the only Mozilla thing corporate interests find worth influencing.

I'm not sure how this makes anything better. The flagship product - Firefox - still depends on the outside money. Surely, the Foundation on top of it doesn't, but who cares about that?

Given up on Firefox?

That’s categorically false.

Firefox is more performant than ever.

Are you implying that $200K is a crazy high salary for Mozilla's CEO?

In many parts of the world that is a pretty good salary

Mozilla isn't headquartered in those parts of the world but in Mountain View, CA. $200K is less than what a 22 year old software engineer right out of college makes over there.

200k maybe with inflated RSU packages lol. 150k base is about the best you’re gonna get even with a masters.

I am not trying to be quippy here, but why does Mozilla need a chief executive officer? as someone who's never been amongst the leadership roles of a company but witnessed the legal structure of plenty of such companies, I'm not sure I understand why it needs one, given what it is and what it does.

because they're a company

I wonder what would happen to a "normal" company that is losing marketshare for years.

Let's ignore for the moment that their CEO is paid over $3 million/year [1], and focus on the $200K for the junior software engineer.

If that's what it takes to hire a programmer in CA, then maybe Mozilla should headquarter somewhere else.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30665913

So then the question becomes why is Mozilla or anyone really still located in CA

Further based on performance the Current Mozilla CEO should be paid less than the Mozilla Janitor who could probably do a better job ;)

Yes. That is 200k more than what Firefox should be paying for a non dev. Could they hire 2 100k developers more ? I would be happy if that was done.

Its not like Tim cook has to manage "shareholders expectations" or "show off the company is well off that they can pay a CEO so much".

A good non-dev can be hugely helpful to devs and much increase their productivity. To repeat: a good one.

No I think that'd be a great salary for the current CEO, maybe the remaining $2.8 million/year could be invested into not having shit products?

Is the implication that is a high salary for a tech executive?

Maybe they are paying too little, lol. These decisions are odd.

Did you forget a 0? Should likely be 2,000k salary.

Apparently they pay their executives an average of 200k, between 68k and 400k: https://www.comparably.com/companies/mozilla/executive-salar..., with the exception being the CEO who nets a nice $3m salary: http://techrights.org/2022/02/17/mozilla-salaries/

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