“Yahoo doesn’t have the magic solution,” Liddell said. “No one should think it will transform the industry….Putting the two organizations together would be a useful step, but it won’t be a panacea….We have to have a plan that excludes Yahoo, we can’t be dependent on that. Even though we’ve suggested it would be great to get together, we don’t work on the basis that’s going to happen. If it does that’s great, but if it doesn’t, that’s fine too.”

Liddell’s remarks came a day after soon-to-be-former Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgensen said the company had not ruled out the idea of a search deal with Microsoft (MSFT).

According to the organization’s latest audited financial statement, its revenue for 2007 totaled $75.1 million, up 13 percent from 2006’s $66.8 million. And 88 percent of that came came directly from Google, which pays Mozilla to be the default search engine in it Firefox browser.

So of Mozilla’s $75.1 million in 2007 revenue, $66 million was paid it by Google. That’s quite a sum. Large enough to pique the interest of the Internal Revenue Service, which is reviewing Mozilla’s nonprofit status and “challenging certain deductions,” according to Mozilla Foundation chairperson Mitchell Baker.

An interesting turn of events for Mozilla, which this time last year was claiming it would walk away from Google if that’s what it took to remain independent. “We’ve spent a lot of time and energy making sure that Google understands that it cannot turn us into an arm of Google,” Baker said at the time. “The things that make Mozilla and Firefox a success [are] the product, and the community that cares about it. First and foremost, we would protect those things,” Baker said. “If the protection of those things would come into conflict with Google, or any of our search partners, we would opt for the community who built Firefox and love Firefox…. There are other ways to make money from a browser.”

Good to know. Because you may need to pursue them when the IRS is through with you…