Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has announced that he is leaving the company sometime later this year. The company announced the change on its blog; while there's no word yet on exactly when Kovacs will be vacating his current position, Mozilla did announce that he'll be staying on at the company as a member of Mozilla's board of directors. A search for a new CEO will begin immediately.

Kovacs joined Mozilla in October of 2010 and is credited as a key part of the company's move towards mobile with the development of Firefox OS, which was formally introduced this past February at Mobile World Congress. Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla foundation, said the hiring of Kovacs helped the company make "a dramatic pivot" to the mobile space — though there's no doubt that Mozilla will face an uphill battle in its quest for achieving marketshare in the heavily competitive mobile space.

Mozilla released the following statement from Kovacs:

"The past two and a half years have been pivotal in the evolution and rapid growth of Mozilla," said Gary Kovacs, CEO. "I am very proud of our accomplishments as a team. In our mission to empower the next two billion Web users, we’ve made great advances in desktop and mobile and in our ability to lead at the pace of the market. With this solid foundation and a strong team in place, this is the right time for me to announce the transition plan and a vote of confidence in the abilities of the leadership team. I am grateful for the privilege of leading this organization during this period of rapid growth, and I look forward to helping guide Mozilla’s impact on the future of mobile.