The Mozilla Foundation announced today that it was moving the Thunderbird email client to a new subsidiary named the MZLA Technologies Corporation.
Mozilla said that Thunderbird will continue to remain free and open source, but by moving the project away from its foundation into a corporate entity they will be able to monetize the product and pay for its development easier than before.
Currently, Thunderbird is primarily being kept alive through charitable donations from the product’s userbase.
“Moving to MZLA Technologies Corporation will not only allow the Thunderbird project more flexibility and agility, but will also allow us to explore offering our users products and services that were not possible under the Mozilla Foundation,” said Philipp Kewisch, Mozilla Product Manager.
“The move will allow the project to collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations, which in turn can be used to cover the costs of new products and services,” Kewisch added.
Source: Mozilla moves to monetize Thunderbird, transfers project to new subsidiary | ZDNet
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