Several Mozilla employees are calling for the resignation of Brendan Eich, the company's newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer. To add to its problems, three members of the board have departed the company, VentureBeat reported.
According to the report, protests have been brewing over Eich's "anti-gay" views which ultimately led to the call for him to resign. The JavaScript creator was chosen to replace then Mozilla head Gary Kovacs who left the post last year. While Mozilla was looking for a replacement, Jay Sullivan who previously served as Mozilla's Vice President of Product, acted as interim CEO, VentureBeat reported on March 24.
Eich supported California's Proposition 8 six years ago by giving a $1,000 contribution to prevent same-sex marriage from happening in California. However, he outlined his commitments for fostering inclusiveness in Mozilla. He said, "I am committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, or religion."
The Wall Street Journal reported that board members Gary Kovacs, John Lilly and Ellen Siminoff also left the company's board last week. Lilly is a partner at Greylock and like Kovacs also once headed Mozilla. Siminoff is the Chief Executive Officer of Shmoop. Now, Mozilla is left with Co-Founder Mitchell Baker, LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman and Katharina Borchet, the Chief Executive Officer of Spiegel Online, a news site based in Germany, the report said.
According to The WSJ, the reason for the departure of the board members was that they wanted to have a chief executive officer sourced externally who has a solid background on mobile who would be able to spearhead Mozilla's foray into mobile operating systems. The company has ramped up its efforts in the mobile operating space, the most recent of which is a phone geared towards the emerging markets which costs $25, the report said.
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