Live data from Hacker News

Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

calpaterson.com

71–80 of 1001 posts

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#71

Devils advocate: you have to pay a top exec more if the company looks like its main product is in decline. Plus 2.4m/year isn't crazy in the scheme of tech salaries - that exec could potentially take other roles that pay even more.

Exec pay is usually tied to some metrics. Like market share or the revenue in case of Mozilla. (In the corporations it is usually done by offering CEO options with nonzero price.) If the company is not performing well, CEO only gets the basic salary (which is higher than engineer salary, but not too large.)

When Mitchell was given a raise for no reason, it is a sign of corruption in Mozilla board.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#72
post #13

There's a quote from the CEO saying that they looked at the market and felt like they were being underpaid. And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. Firefox has a problem. It gets most of its revenue from Google. They need a different revenue stream but their ideas haven't worked. Their executives are clearly failures. But with such high pay, they're cashing out. Buying themsel…

> And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. This kind of bullshit infuriates me to no end.

How can you even spend around 2.5 million A YEAR (okay, before taxes, whatever) if you're not BURNING the cash?

I don't get it.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#73

The main difference here is a US tech Vs UK corporate culture. Mozilla's approach is "spend lots of cash and grow fast like a VC backed company". The guardian is a "let's try and have a stable user base and keep the company alive for another 100 years". In this case, Mozilla's approach has failed badly. I think it's unlikely they'll turn it around without the help of another big tech company making a strategic purcha…

Not sure The Guardian is the best example of economic success.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#74
post #13

There's a quote from the CEO saying that they looked at the market and felt like they were being underpaid. And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. Firefox has a problem. It gets most of its revenue from Google. They need a different revenue stream but their ideas haven't worked. Their executives are clearly failures. But with such high pay, they're cashing out. Buying themsel…

> And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. This kind of bullshit infuriates me to no end.

It's the organisational equivalent to tech debt.

A clear problem, should address it, but probably won't. And will make up some phoney reason to justify it.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#76
post #13

There's a quote from the CEO saying that they looked at the market and felt like they were being underpaid. And they can't reduce their salary now because it'd be unfair on their families. Firefox has a problem. It gets most of its revenue from Google. They need a different revenue stream but their ideas haven't worked. Their executives are clearly failures. But with such high pay, they're cashing out. Buying themsel…

being unfair to other’s family members didn’t stop the layoffs.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#77

There are no breaks on the exec comp train, only the end of the line. If the company is doing well the comp goes up, if it fails the comp goes up as a reward to compensate for the risk and attract talent. Until the company goes belly up.

I just fail to believe executive pay has anything to do with talent. It just does not compute.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#78

I'm two fences on Firefox doing "too many unrelated things" as the article suggests. Firefox OS has been pretty much unsuccessful, but it sort of made sense? It started to be made when Firefox was still on top on desktop, but mobile started eating its lunch; and it was clear that Firefox need to do something about it, or the future will be all Chrome and Safari, on the two locked-down platforms. Which eventually happ…

What about WebXR? That seems to be their current big bet which seems insane to me.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#79

Devils advocate: you have to pay a top exec more if the company looks like its main product is in decline. Plus 2.4m/year isn't crazy in the scheme of tech salaries - that exec could potentially take other roles that pay even more.

I still don't get why companies pay ridiculous amounts of money to get execs from the outside. Every other role is (mostly) filled via promotions, why should executives be any different?

Admittedly, Baker specifically got her role by being "promoted" from a Netscape lawyer and then playing a role in the creation of Mozilla, so my complaint doesn't quite apply. I'd still see letting her go and promoting someone to fill her place as a better alternative to the pay raise.

Re: Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up

#80
This makes me sad. I hope this doesn't mean the demise of Firefox, my personal browser from before it was called "Firefox".

I know many of us will pay for privacy, and even help subsidize those who can't, but they have to be alive first.

At work, I replaced Chrome with Brave, but I still trust FF as the browser for my personal life (in addition to, of course, Pi-Hole, Algo VPN, and a number of plugins; or QubesOS + Whonix when things are really serious).

Post reply on HN