Mozilla has signed an extension to their existing search deal that will keep Google search as the default search engine for Firefox for another three years, according to a report from ZDNet.
The deal, which was set to expire at the end of 2020, is said to be worth from $400 to $450 million.
ZDNet said that Mozilla is expected to officially announce the deal in November as part of the company disclosing its 2019 financials. It said that the details of the deal were leaked to it as Mozilla announced the layoff of over 250 employees on Wednesday.
The layoffs were apparently part of a restructuring of Mozilla’s core business, and the company is not in financial trouble. It also reportedly wants to work to lessen its reliance on Google search, but the news it has extended the deal shows that this end goal is some way off.
Firefox lets you pick other search engines as the default such as DuckDuckGo, Bing, or Yahoo, but Google has a market dominance that means it is the preferred engine for the majority of internet users.
In a statement to ZDNet, Mozilla did not address the report directly but said:
“Mozilla’s search partnership with Google is ongoing, with Google as the default search provider in the Firefox browser in many places around the world. We’ve recently extended the partnership, and the relationship isn’t changing.”
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.