Mozilla shutters its connected devices division
'We recognize it will impact lives and are are committed to supporting their well-being.'
Mozilla will close its gadgets division, laying off some 50 employees working on products for connected devices (like smart TVs, for example) in the process. While the company wouldn't comment on the specific number of employees affected, it offered the following statement:
"IoT is clearly an emerging technology space, but it's still early. We have shifted our internal approach to the IoT opportunity to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our Connected Devices initiative and incorporating our IoT explorations into an increased focus on Emerging Technologies.
This is much like our approach to Quantum which emerged from Servo/Rust. We continue to grow our headcount and investment across all of Mozilla, including investments in new areas like IoT, VR, AR and Decentralized Web."
It sounds like the company is doing what it can to make sure employees land as gently as possible. Mozilla said it's working to transfer affected workers to other positions internally and that if one isn't available, it will provide "severance, extended benefits and outplacement services."
"Although we believe it is the right strategic decision for Mozilla, we recognize that it will impact people's lives and are are committed to supporting their well-being. People are the reason why we can get anything done -- this isn't lost on us -- and we did not make this decision lightly."
As CNET reports, the firm doesn't appear to be struggling financially. Recent tax returns show that through partnerships with Yahoo, Yandex and Baidu the company made $421 million.
