Re:Maintaining an Independent Browser Is Expensive
by Vinnl on Sunday December 03, 2017 @07:59AM
(#15837391)
That only says they made Google the default search engine, not that they received money from them. And even if they did, that would be in addition to what they are still getting from Yahoo - the contract lasts until 2019. Mozilla simply had the option of changing the default in case of a Yahoo! acquisition by a company not in line with their values (i.e. Verizon).
As long as search is the revenue center, there isn't much room[1] for diversification. If they need annual revenue of ~$400M to operate, it's either Google or Google.
edit: On that last point, I could be wrong. Most of the biggies could throw half a billion at them indefinitely if it served the right purpose.
[0] https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/14/mozilla-terminates-its-dea...
[1] https://www.netmarketshare.com/search-engine-market-share.as...