What’s Firefox worth to Google? Nearly $1 billion

Chrome is within striking distance of Firefox for second place in worldwide browser usage, but that hasn't stopped Google from throwing its financial weight behind the non-profit browser.

(Credit:
Net Applications)

Don’t let the StatCounters and the NetApplications of the world fool you: despite stagnant and even slightly negative market share growth, Firefox and its default search box is still extremely valuable to Google.

How valuable? The three-year default search deal that Firefox’s nonprofit parent company, Mozilla, just inked with Google is worth nearly $300 million per year, according to unnamed sources who spoke to AllThingsD.

In a statement to AllThingsD, Google’s senior vice president of search, Alan Eustace, said: “Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come.” To those who spend a lot of time observing Mozilla, … [Read more]