January 28, 2009 8:41 AM PST

Firefox-branding start-up gets funding

by Stephen Shankland
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Brand Thunder, a company that lets people customize Firefox with brands, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Ohio TechAngels and other angel investors, the company said Tuesday.

The company revamps the open-source Web browser with various brands such as Nascar, hockey teams, country singer Julianne Hough, and various other partners.

To fund its business, Brand Thunder also changes the default search engine to Yahoo, which shares resulting advertising revenue with the company.

Brand Thunder also said it's signed a new partnership with Major League Soccer for a branded browser.

Update 9:45 a.m. PST: The company followed up with details of the funding: $350,000 from TechColumbus, $200,000 from the Ohio TechAngels Fund, and $200,000 from other angel investors.

In addition, the company said it expects to break even by the end of the quarter. It had hoped to do so in February, but a slowdown in Yahoo search delayed it slightly. The company also receives revenue from maintenance, upfront fees, and other sources.

Brand Thunder lets people customize Firefox with assorted brands.

Brand Thunder lets people customize Firefox with assorted brands.

(Credit: Brand Thunder)
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
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by sam99999999 January 28, 2009 4:33 PM PST
I sure hope this company returns some of the money they are collecting to the people that write Firefox...
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by brijcharan January 29, 2009 3:26 PM PST
Except...
A. Mozilla makes like $50million a year for firefox.
B. Brand Thunder is actually increasing awareness of firefox, and converting users from other browsers TO firefox.
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by Roinator January 31, 2009 4:19 PM PST
This is somewhat hilarious. A company can make money off of these themes, something awesome people (nerds) have been doing for free. Ha ha good for them.
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