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Comment by spaceribs | Hacker News Reader

If any organization should be a worker-cooperative, it should be Mozilla. Why should a team that is so heavily supportive of OSS be reliant on investments and donations?

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They would still have to pay themselves, presumably with investments and donations (and subsidies).

There are lots of ways to do this, companies divest into worker cooperatives all the time.

What revenue model is unavailable to Mozilla now and would become available by reforming into a cooperative?

Not having to pay profits to the mozilla non profit that then spends it. Would free up a lot of resources they could spend on improving the product.

Reducing expenses is not a revenue model.

Mozilla Corporation paid Mozilla Foundation $20 million in 2021. 3.5% of revenue approximately. And received trademark licenses and IT services. I am skeptical changing IT vendors and rebranding would be beneficial.

I wouldn't say any, it creates a more stable infrastructure that isn't at the whims of the markets or outside stakeholders. I'd say browsers are ready for that sort of stability too, and I'd hazard that it would be a renaissance for bringing in other interested silicon valley tech leaders to build out new sides of the business.

Markets' whims affect a non profit foundation with more than $1 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments less than most cooperatives. Mozilla's actions are not consistent with concern to please the main funder. And people called leaders in Silicon Valley seem very little interested in cooperatives.

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