Mozilla Corporation, the owner and creator of Firefox, is set to lay off 60 people as part of an internal shake up, under the leadership of a new chief executive officer (CEO).
The company said the move will affect around 5% of staff, and the cuts will be primarily in the product development organisation.
Employees have just been informed of the decision.
In a statement, Mozilla said, “We’re scaling back investment in some product areas in order to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success. We intend to re-prioritize resources against products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”
This move comes one week after the company named its new CEO, Laura Chambers. She is a former Airbnb Inc and eBay Inc executive.
She joined the Mozilla board three years ago, and gained the position after Mozilla’s chief, Mitchell Baker stepped down, taking on the role of executive chairman.
The last large job cut at Mozilla happened four years ago, right at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company, which competes against Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Microsoft’s Edge, has also been trying to grip onto the sliding market share of Firefox.
Additionally, Mozilla’s products also include Thunderbird (an email software), and Pocket (an article-saving app).
This is the latest job layoff round in the tech industry, which has seen over 32,000 jobs lost so far this year.
Several major tech companies have laid off staff recently, including Amazon and Snap Inc.
