Browser app provider Mozilla is breaking out its Thunderbird e-mail tool into a separate company, similar to what Mozilla did. Mozilla, which will still run its Firefox browser, is providing $3 million in seed funding for the new subsidiary, which will be run by David Ascher, currently CTO and VP of engineering at open-source developer ActiveState. Release

—GigaOm: The building out of Thunderbird on its own is meant to address the perception that it’s a poor stepchild of Mozilla and forced to live in the shadow Firefox. One of Ascher’s goals is to morph Thunderbird into an online communications hub for social network tools such as Twitter and Facebook alerts.