Mozilla"s funding from Google is set to expire soon and the company has revealed that it is already in talks with the search giant for an extension.
Google has been responsible for nearly ninety percent of Mozilla"s revenue, categorized as royalties, due to an agreement between the companies made back in 2005. As part of the agreement, Google is the default search provider in Mozilla"s Firefox browser and a part of the revenue generated from every search made through the search bar is given to Mozilla.
As of 2012, the money generated by Google searches from Firefox has contributed to nearly 90% of Mozilla"s total revenue. The initial deal between the two companies was re-negotiated once before, in 2011 for a period of three years and is set to end this month.
Now, Mozilla has told The Register, that the company is in talks with Google to keep the inflow of money coming from Google, but has assured that it is purely business and the companies don"t see eye to eye when it comes to policies.
Mozilla CTO, Andreas Gal, has said that, "Even though we have a business relationship with Google and friendly relationships on standards with Microsoft and Apple etc, you have to work with competitors and then compete with them. There’s no conflict in our mind."
With a variety of new products in the pipeline, the Google deal would be an important one for Mozilla, and it will be interesting to see how the talks turn out.
Source: The Register | Image via Mozilla