The latest on the WordPress fight over trademarks and open source – The Verge

WordPress.com owner Automattic is laying off 16 percent of workers

2025-04-02T16:12:22-04:00

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, is laying off about 16 percent of its workers. In a memo posted to the company's website, CEO Matt Mullenweg says he's making the change to "protect Automattic's long-term future."

Before the layoffs, Automattic's website listed the company as having 1,777 employees. The company has since decreased its employee count to 1,495, meaning around 280 staff members were affected by the job cuts.

Last year, the third-party hosting company WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg after the company blocked WP Engine from WordPress.org's server and took over its Advanced Custom Field …

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Automattic cuts WordPress contribution hours, blames WP Engine

2025-01-10T13:18:23-05:00

Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, is scaling back its contributions to the WordPress open-source project, according to an announcement on Thursday. The company says it's decreasing contributions to "match" the amount of time companies like WP Engine spend on the ecosystem, further escalating the tension between Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and the community.

Now, instead of spending 3,988 hours per week developing the WordPress project, Automattic says it will now contribute around 45 hours as part of Five for the Future - a program that encourages companies to give back five percent of their resources to WordPress.org. "The …

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WordPress parent company must stop blocking WP Engine, judge rules

2024-12-10T18:44:18-05:00

WP Engine just won a preliminary injunction against WordPress.com parent company Automattic. On Tuesday, a California District Court judge ordered Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins.

The preliminary injunction comes after WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, filed a lawsuit that accused Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, of "multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm." It later asked the court to stop Mullenweg from restricting WP Engine's access to WordPress.org.

Mullenweg waged a public campaign against WP Engine in September, accusing the servi …

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WordPress cofounder asks court to dismiss WP Engine’s lawsuit

2024-10-31T12:31:46-04:00

WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic have asked a court to dismiss WP Engine's lawsuit accusing them of libel and extortion. In a filing on Wednesday, Mullenweg argues that WP Engine is conjuring claims "out of legal thin air," while alleging it continues to use the WordPress trademark "in unauthorized ways."

Earlier this month, the third-party WordPress hosting service WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg after the executive embarked on a "scorched earth nuclear" campaign against it. In addition to accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, Mullenweg claimed the service doesn't contribute e …

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WP Engine asks court to stop Matt Mullenweg from blocking access to WordPress resources

2024-10-18T10:04:02-04:00

WP Engine is asking a court to put a stop to Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg's public campaign against the company. In a motion for a preliminary injunction filed against Automattic and Mullenweg on Friday, the third-party hosting platform requests that the court restore its access to WordPress resources and allow it to regain control of its plugin that had been taken over.

In the filing, WP Engine claims it's facing "multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm" as a result of Mullenweg and Automattic's actions, including "loss of customers, market share and goodwill." The company also says it saw a 14 percent increase in cancellation reques …

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Automattic offered employees another chance to quit over WordPress drama

2024-10-17T15:39:39-04:00

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered a second buyout round to employees who don't agree with his actions, according to a report from 404 Media. In a message to employees seen by the outlet, Mullenweg gave employees until October 17th to decide whether they would resign in exchange for nine months of pay.

"New alignment offer: I guess some people were sad they missed the last window. Some have been leaking to the press and ex-employees," Mullenweg wrote in the message seen by 404 Media. "You have until 00:00 UTC Oct 17 (-4 hours) to DM me the words, 'I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer' You don't have to say any reason …

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WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

2024-10-12T17:10:45-04:00

WordPress.org has taken over a popular WP Engine plugin in order "to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem," WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced today. This "minimal" update, which he labels a fork of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, is now called "Secure Custom Fields."

It's not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post. He writes that he's "invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines," in which the WordPress team reserves several rights, including removing a plugin, or changing it "without developer consent." Mullenweg explains that the move has to do with …

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Matt Mullenweg: ‘WordPress.org just belongs to me’

2024-10-04T14:25:33-04:00

Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp 2024 in Europe. | Image: WordCamp

Over the past several weeks, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg has made one thing exceedingly clear: he's in charge of WordPress' future.

Mullenweg heads up WordPress.com and its parent company, Automattic. He owns the WordPress.org project, and he even leads the nonprofit foundation that controls the WordPress trademark. To the outside observer, these might appear to be independent organizations, all separately designed around the WordPress open-source project. But as he wages a battle against WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, Mullenweg has muddied the boundaries between three essential entities that lead a sprawling eco …

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WordPress cofounder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with him

2024-10-04T09:02:45-04:00

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered employees $30,000, or six months of salary (whichever is higher), to leave the company if they didn't agree with his battle against WP Engine. In an update on Thursday night, Mullenweg said 159 people, making up 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer.

Automattic, which is in charge of WordPress.com and its commercial services, has been involved in a public dispute with WP Engine after Mullenweg called the third-party hosting service a "cancer" to the WordPress community and banned it from accessing WordPress.org.

Mullenweg has claimed WP Engine is violating the WordPress trademark and criticized th …

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The ‘WordPress’ fight is now a lawsuit

2024-10-03T07:00:41-04:00

WP Engine said the lawsuit aims to address “abuse of power, extortion, and greed.” | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

The WP Engine web hosting service is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Automattic for alleged libel and attempted extortion, following a public spat over the WordPress trademark and open-source project. In the federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday, WP Engine accuses both Automattic and its CEO Mullenweg of "abuse of power, extortion, and greed," and said it seeks to prevent them from inflicting further harm against WP Engine and the WordPress community.

WP Engine is a major rival to WordPress.com, with more than 200,000 websites using the service. Mullenweg runs Automattic, which owns WordPress.com, a company that sells a hosted ve …

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