Mozilla's Finances Are Up, Thanks to Google

Mozilla has released its annual financial results for 2012, and it answers several questions about the company. First off, Mozilla is healthy, wth revenues up, but its dependence on Google for the bulk of its revenues is ongoing. 

Many people don't realize that Mozilla has had a deal with Google to subsidize the company in exchange for search placement in the Firefox browser that lead users into the Google ecosystem. The deal expired in 2011, but has been extended until 2014. Last year, Mozilla's revenues were a very healthy $311 million, way up from $163 million the year before. About 90 percent of those revenues come from its deal with Google.

Mozilla is a nonprofit organization but discloses its finances for tax and other reasons. The company also strikes deals with non-Google search engines, but Google remains the sugar daddy behind Mozilla.

Mozilla's expenses have grown along with revenues, coming in at about 208 million for last year, compared to $145 million in 2011. The company is, of course, realigning its entire strategy around the Firefox OS mobile platform, and that could have a big impact on revenues going forward.

Next year, we will see Mozilla renegotiate its contract with Google once more. It's likely that Google may up the ante, and there is no doubt that Mozilla remains very dependent on the search giant.