Firefox Loses Google Contract Producing 84% Of Its Revenue

For a long time Firefox from Mozilla was the second most popular web browser right being Internet Explorer from Microsoft. Over the last year, Mozilla has been hit hard in the browser wars with key workers leaving the firm and it has been struggling with some issues that have seen users of Firefox defect to competing browsers like Chrome.

Two of the biggest blows to Mozilla were the loss of a key manager Mike Shaver that left for greener pastures and the loss of a key revenue stream. Mozilla has had a contract in place with Google making the search giant its largest financial backer. A search partnership with Google was the largest source of income for Mozilla. That partnership was set to end in November.

That one partnership with Google was generating 84% to 86% of all the revenue that Mozilla earned. At this point, there is still apparently a chance that the Google search deal will be renewed. Mozilla is paying the situation close to the vest and will only offer vague responses like "We believe that search providers will remain a solid generator of revenue for Mozilla for the foreseeable future." What do you think, is Firefox done? Does Google even need the Firefox partnership since Chrome is gaining many of the Firefox defectors? Will Google renew the deal to keep Bing or Yahoo from signing up?

[via ZDNet]