After some time to think about the formation of a revenue-generating corporation under the Foundation umbrella, a solution presents itself.

Earlier this week, the makers of the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client announced they would form a taxable subsidiary called the Mozilla Corporation. According to a press release, the subsidiary will be responsible for managing the value of Mozilla products and their potential for revenue.

The release reiterates the Foundation’s commitment to open source. It states the Corporation will “focus on developing and delivering end-user products, including marketing, sponsorships and a range of distribution-related activities.” Such activities will be expected to generate revenue.

I’m missing something here.

Marketing and sponsorships require expending capital. The oft-repeated wisdom ‘you have to spend money to make money’ may apply here, except that Mozilla has not disclosed what it may be planning to sell.

Mozilla says the “broad adoption of Mozilla Firefox has created significant economic value both in Firefox itself and in a commercial ecosystem that is developing around Firefox.” Fair enough. Does that mean a for-pay version of Firefox, or Thunderbird, or the Calendar Project…

Ah. Maybe that’s it. The Calendar Project. “A cross-platform fully standards based calendar client based on the open iCal standard.” It will be targeted at Mozilla-based browsers, like Firefox, Netscape, and the other Mozilla applications.

Mozilla could keep the Sunbird project going as a freely-available application, while honing business-level features in Calendar and making that a for-pay solution. It’s not like there isn’t precedent, just look at Red Hat and its Enterprise Linux focus, or SugarCRM and its products.

So there you have it: Mozilla may plan to capitalize on Calendar, tout its relatively better security in relation to Microsoft products, and bring Firefox and Thunderbird along for the ride. World domination to follow.

David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.