CEO of Europe's biggest browser company in court: We would be really struggling to stay alive without Google
Mozilla
's Chief Financial Officer warned Friday that
Firefox
's survival is at risk if the Justice Department's proposed remedies against
Google
's
search monopoly
are fully implemented.
Eric Muhlheim
testified that losing Google's
default search engine
payments would threaten the browser maker's existence.
"We would be really struggling to stay alive," Muhlheim said during testimony as Google presents its defense in the
antitrust case
. The court has already ruled that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in search, partly through exclusionary default search engine agreements.
Muhlheim revealed that Firefox generates about 90 percent of Mozilla's revenue, with approximately 85 percent of that coming directly from its Google search deal. Without this income, Mozilla would face "significant cuts across the company" and a potential "downward spiral" as product engineering investments decrease.
Google deal critical to browser's financial viability
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The DOJ wants to prohibit Google from paying to be the default search engine in third-party browsers like Firefox. Additional proposals include forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser and requiring it to share search results with competitors.
While these remedies aim to increase competition, Muhlheim testified that an immediate end to Google payments would be devastating for Mozilla. The company has explored alternatives, including discussions with
Microsoft
about Bing, but found that other search engines don't monetize traffic as effectively as Google.
A December 2024 board presentation highlighted that losing Google payments posed a "significant threat to viability for Mozilla with limited ability to mitigate." When Mozilla previously made Yahoo the default search engine between 2014 and 2017, users disliked the experience so much that many abandoned Firefox entirely.
Long-term market reform vs immediate survival
Under cross-examination, Muhlheim acknowledged it would be preferable not to rely on one customer for most of Mozilla's revenue. He also agreed with Judge Amit Mehta that Mozilla would benefit if at least one other company matched Google's quality and monetization capabilities.
"If we were suddenly in that world," Muhlheim said, "that would be a world that would be better for Mozilla."
The CFO noted that Firefox's underlying Gecko browser engine is "the only browser engine that is held not by Big Tech but by a nonprofit," contrasting with Google's Chromium and Apple's WebKit. Mozilla developed Gecko to prevent a single company from controlling internet protocols.
While the DOJ's proposals could eventually create more quality search engines competing for Firefox's default position, Muhlheim warned this would likely take too long for Mozilla to survive the transition period intact.
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