Mozilla Messaging Starts up Operations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Mozilla Messaging, the new mail focused subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, today announced that it has begun operations.

The initial focus for Mozilla Messaging is the development of Thunderbird 3, which will deliver significant improvements, notably integrated calendaring, better search and enhancements to the overall user experience. Thunderbird is a free, open source email application that is used by millions of people around the world and is built using the same open source development model as the award-winning Mozilla Firefox Web browser.

Mozilla Messaging has staffed a small product development team who will work as part of a community of contributors from around the world.

"We're excited to renew the focus of our open source community on the future of Thunderbird," said David Ascher, CEO, Mozilla Messaging. "Every one of us is committed to building a great email product that people will love to use and that serves as the foundation for choice in a critical area of Internet software."

Mozilla Messaging is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. The board of directors consists of David Ascher, CEO, Mozilla Messaging; Christopher Beard, VP and General Manager, Mozilla Labs; and Marten Mickos, CEO of open source database vendor MySQL AB.

"Thunderbird email is a vital part of the Mozilla project which brings freedom to hundreds of millions of internet users worldwide," said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB. "By joining the board of Mozilla Messaging, I hope to help the world communicate better."

For more information, please see the FAQ and the following blog post from David Ascher:

FAQ: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2008-02-19-faq.html
David Ascher's blog post:
http://ascher.ca/blog/2008/02/19/mozilla-messaging/

About Mozilla
Mozilla is a global community dedicated to building free, open source products and technologies that improve the online experience for people everywhere. We work in the open with a highly disciplined, transparent and cooperative development process, under the umbrella of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Mozilla Messaging organizes the development and marketing of email and communications products, including the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. For more information, visit http://www.mozillamessaging.com.