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Mozilla 2023 Annual Report: CEO pay skyrockets, while Firefox Marketshare nosedives
(and that appears to be the plan)
December 28, 2023
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The Mozilla Foundation has released their latest annual report -- covering the time up through December of 2022 (Mozilla's reporting always lags by one year) -- and something peculiar leaps out of the data:

  • The compensation of the Mozilla CEO has skyrocketed (by millions)
  • While the Mozilla revenue drops
  • And the Firefox Marketshare takes a nosedive

While, at first, this seems ridiculously lopsided... perhaps it actually makes sense.

Perhaps the decreasing Firefox marketshare is a good thing, from the Mozilla point of view.

Mozilla CEO gets a raise

Let's start by looking at the pay of the Mozilla CEO.

Source: Mozilla Foundation 2022 IRS 990

That's right.  Your eyes do not deceive you.  The Mozilla CEO earned $6,903,089 in 2022.  Just shy of $7 Million.

The year prior (2021), the CEO earned $5.6 Million.  A raise of $1.3 Million dollars.  Not a bad year-on-year increase!

Now let's take a look at the core performance of Mozilla: The overall revenue, and the marketshare of their core product (Firefox) during that same period.

If a CEO gets a $1.3 Million dollar raise, surely those numbers will be excellent!  ... Right?

Turns out... the revenue for Mozilla actually dropped between 2021 and 2022.

Source: Mozilla Foundation 2022 IRS 990

To be fair, not a huge drop.  Revenue went from $600 Million in 2021 to $593 Million in 2022.  Roughly $7 Million lower.  A small decrease, percentage wise... but a decrease just the same.

The Firefox Nosedive

Now let's look at the marketshare of Mozilla's primary product: Firefox.

From the end of 2021 to the end of 2022 (the period during which the Mozilla CEO received a $1.3 Million Dollar raise), Firefox marketshare took a massive tumble.

Going from (an already declining) 3.79%... down to 3.04%.

It's almost as if there is an inverse relationship between Firefox Marketshare and Mozilla CEO compensation -- as marketshare goes down... CEO pay goes up by a similar percentage.

Absolutely wild.

Something doesn't add up... or does it?

So.  What can we learn from all of this?

Well, for starters, it is clear that Mozilla CEO compensation is not tied to either the success of the Firefox web browser (their current primary product) or to the overall revenue of Mozilla.

So what, exactly, could be the justification for that massive pay raise?

Turns out there are two big, measurable goals that Mozilla appears to have... and, at those goals, it is performing exceptionally well:

  1. Continued increases to overall corporate financial assets.
  2. Transitioning Mozilla away from Firefox.

That first goal is rather obvious.  Let's be honest, what company doesn't want to have a massive pile of financial assets?

In 2022, the Mozilla war-chest (total assets) grew to a staggering $1.3 Billion Dollars -- up $157 Million from the year prior.  A huge increase to their financial assets.

Source: Mozilla Foundation 2022 IRS 990

With over half a Billion Dollars in cash alone.  That's a lot of cheddar.

But that's only part of the story.

The De-Firefox-ification of Mozilla

Let's take another look at the 2022 revenue breakdown.


Note that revenue from "Royalties" is down substantially -- a decrease of $17 Million.  Those "Royalties" are, in large part, made up of default search engine placement, within Firefox, for one single customer... Google.  This decrease makes sense considering the signficant decline in Firefox marketshare.

But then look at the second row: "Subscription and advertising revenue".

What is that, exactly?  That line item includes some of the more recently launched subscription services -- "Pocket Premium" and "Mozilla VPN" (plus some advertising placement).  And, you'll note, that revenue jumped from $56 Million to $75 Million in 2022.

While that may be a drop in the bucket of the overall Mozilla revenue and war-chest... it's a critical strategy for Mozilla to diversify their revenue stream away from Firefox.

As it turns out, moving away from Firefox is exactly Mozilla's plan.

Earlier this year, Mozilla laid out their vision for the future of their organization -- and it did not include Firefox.  The focus for the future of Mozilla -- according to Mozilla -- is primarily based around Artificial Intelligence services.

In fact, Mozilla leadership stated, quite plainly, that they intend to take Mozilla "in a different direction."

When you consider the goals of Mozilla... the decreasing Firefox marketshare is no longer much of a concern.  In fact, moving revenue away from Firefox, while investing in A.I. systems (and other subscription services) becomes the primary goal.

And, at that, the Mozilla CEO is excelling.

The future of Mozilla

What does all of this mean for the future of Mozilla?  What have we learned from Mozilla statements coupled with their financial reports?

  • Mozilla rewards executives who oversee a decreasing success and reliance upon Firefox -- so we can expect more of that.
  • In turn, that likely means reduced investment in Firefox development and promotion over the coming years.
  • Mozilla intends to focus on A.I. -- so we can expect more A.I. investment, and possible A.I. services, in the year ahead.
  • If all of that holds true, we can likely expect the Mozilla CEO to receive additional raises in the next annual reports.

If you are a fan of Firefox... none of that points to a particularly bright future.

That said... if you are the CEO at Mozilla... you might bring in enough income to buy your own island fortress pretty soon.  And who doesn't want an island fortress?


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October 15, 2025
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The Unpublished Anti-Lunduke Hit-Piece
A Tech Journalist interviewed me for a hit-piece article. But the questions made them look bad, and they shelved the story. So I'm publishing their hit-piece for them.

Back in September, shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I was contacted by a Tech Journalist writing for FossForce.com (a smaller, Open Source focused publication) who was working on an article around Open Source, Antifa, and the Lunduke Journal’s coverage of those topics.

This particular outlet had, several months prior, run an “anti-Lunduke” hit piece without first reaching out for comment — which resulted in their most popular article (at least on social media) in quite some time.

With that in mind, it seemed reasonable that they’d want to repeat that success with another “anti-Lunduke” story.

This time they were doing the responsible thing. They reached out to the subject of the hit-piece article with questions. I like encouraging Tech Journalists when they do actual journalism, so I answered each and every query with easy-to-quote responses.

But, it would appear that the answers they received were not conducive to creating the hit-piece they were hoping for — my guess is they realized their questions made them look like the villain in the story. The villain they, clearly, hoped to portray me as.

They opted to not publish the piece.

So I’m publishing their hit-piece for them.

Below is every question — and every answer (with no edits) — which I was asked, on September 19th, by a Tech Journalist by the name of Christine Hall, writing for FossForce.

Fair warning: This is very, very politically charged.

Enjoy.


September 19th

Hall:

The last time I mentioned you in an article, you castigated me for not reaching out to you beforehand. Well, I’m reaching out now. We’ll see what comes of this.

You do recognize that the vast majority of organizations using the term antifa as a descriptor are not in the least bit terrorist and pose no threat to society -- and indeed, the only threats they might pose to fascist groups are not physical or life-harming?

Lunduke:

Hello Christine! Nice to hear from you!

Many, if not most, of those proclaiming support for Antifa (within Open Source) have also made statements encouraging or supporting violence and discrimination.

Regardless of that fact -- which I have documented extensively in Lunduke Journal coverage -- when violent acts are committed (such as murder, riots, and lynchings) in the name of “Antifa”, to turn around and immediately declare yourself to be “Antifa” is a clear declaration of support of that violence.

Hall:

And why did you feel it necessary to call out Danielle Foré’s [the founder of the elementary OS Linux Distribution] trans status in such an ugly manner?

Lunduke:

There is a noteworthy overlap between “Trans activism” and support for political violence -- including in the recent murder of Charlie Kirk (the murderer’s boyfriend was “Trans”).

In the case of Daniel Fore, he, a leader of an Open Source project, regularly calls for discrimination (and violence) against people he disagrees with -- often in conjunction with his self-declaration as “Trans”.

Thus, his declaration of being “Trans” becomes a part of the overall story.

It is worth noting here that The Lunduke Journal has never -- and would never -- call for discrimination or violence against someone because of how they identify or who they may (or may not) vote for.

This is in stark contrast those, such as Mr. Fore, who consider themselves “Trans” or “Antifa” -- who actively advocate for both discrimination and violence.

Hall:

Mentioning a person’s trans status in ways that are pertinent to your argument necessates rudeness such as calling her a “dude who likes to wear dresses”?

Lunduke:

Dan Fore is, in fact, a dude who likes to wear dresses.

The only reason to view that as a negative is if you view dudes wearing dresses as a negative.

Hall:

I’ll quote you on that, which I’m pretty sure won’t bother you in the least.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Quote anything I say here. In fact, I suggest quoting absolutely everything I’ve written to you here, today.

Hall:

You also understand, don’t you, that voicing disagreement with an assessment made by POTUS is not only legal but a healthy part of the national dialog.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Did I say somewhere that it was illegal to disagree with a politician? It seems unlikely that I have ever said that.

Hall:

Also, how would you reply to this:

There have been very few murders linked to individuals associated with Antifa, some incidents of rioting attributed to Antifa supporters, and no credible evidence of lynchings conducted in the name of Antifa. Compared to far-right groups, violence attributed to Antifa is much less frequent and lethal, with only one suspected kill—Aaron Danielson in Portland, by an anti-fascist activist—officially confirmed in recent U.S. history.

Lunduke:

Murder is bad. I am opposed to all murder.

In the context of these discussions, bearing in mind the Kirk murder is important (as many statements were made in response to it). The murderer of Kirk appears to have been pro-Trans and pro-Antifa (based on all available information).

Hall:

Is there any evidence that the suspect was part of an antifa group? I haven’t seen any.

Lunduke:

I have seen some reporting to this effect (including statements from family and messages he wrote).

But, far more important to this story, is the response to the murder among Antifa supporters (including those within Open Source). A large portion of Antifa supporters have celebrated the murder as justified because it killed someone they considered to be a “fascist”.

Hall:

Also, no group should be held responsible for what some deranged person who identifies with the group has done.

Lunduke:

I agree that a broader group should not be held responsible for the actions of a small number of individuals.

However, and this is critically important, it is entirely appropriate to hold people responsible for their own statements and actions.

With that in mind: The overall messaging of Antifa (and Antifa supporters) tends heavily towards violence. Punching, killing, molotov cocktails, etc. are all common messaging used by Antifa (including by those I quote within the Open Source world -- many of whom have advocated violence against myself).

Advocating for violence, then celebrating when violence is committed, are not good things.

Yet we see a great deal of that among Open Source supporters of Antifa.

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October 13, 2025
Sale ends in a few hours, Lifetime Subs set up.

Holy moly, you guys are amazing.

A few days ago I published a “50% off” sale for Lunduke Journal subscriptions… and all of you showed up. In a big way.

To everyone who grabbed a Lifetime Subscription over the last few days: All of you are set to full Lifetime access. You should have a confirmation email in your inbox. If not, email me and I’ll make sure you’re setup properly.

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-Lunduke

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