The feud between WP Engine and WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg not too long ago got here to a head when the website hosting firm sued the latter, accusing him of “abuse of energy, racketeering, and greed.” Mullenweg mentioned in a brand new weblog put up that his opponents’ assaults on him and his firm had been efficient sufficient that “a good portion” [his] Computerized colleagues disagree [him and his] In response, he instituted a “buyout plan” that supplied staff $30,000 or six months’ wage, whichever was higher, in the event that they resigned. ) accepted the proposal.
Many of the departing staff are from the corporate’s ecosystem/WordPress enterprise, with the rest coming from functions divisions resembling Tumblr and Cloudup. as TechCrunch Mullenweg famous that Mullenweg gave the occasion a optimistic evaluation, lamenting that “one other 91.6% gave up $126 million in potential severance packages to remain!”
Mullenweg known as WP Engine “the most cancers of WordPress” and accused the corporate of infringing WordPress logos. He mentioned they supplied WP Engine the choice of “paying the license charge immediately or making an in-kind donation to the open supply undertaking,” however the firm declined. WP Engine argued that its use of the WordPress trademark was authorized. In response, the WordPress Basis modified its trademark coverage web page to say that the “WP” abbreviation doesn’t fall inside the scope of WordPress logos, however please don’t use it “in a complicated means.” It named WP Engine outright and even mentioned the corporate “has by no means donated as soon as to the WordPress Basis, regardless of making billions of {dollars} in income on WordPress.” The WordPress co-founder additionally banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress of some plugins and themes, which brought on lots of the web sites it hosted to crash.
WP Engine alleges Mullenweg’s demand for royalties of 8% of the corporate’s month-to-month income constitutes defamation, libel, violations of the Pc Fraud and Abuse Act and IRS fraud. Mullenweg mentioned in a press release that he stayed up all night time studying the criticism and located the entire thing “baseless.” He added that he appeared ahead to “the federal court docket contemplating [the] litigation.
