Automattic
CEO
Matt
Mullenweg
offered
employees
$30,000,
or
six
months
of
salary,
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
the
company
for
not
giving
back
to
the
WordPress
open-source
project.
On
Wednesday,
WP
Engine,
which
is
owned
by
the
private
equity
company
Silver
Lake,
followed
up
with
a
lawsuit
that
accuses
Mullenweg
and
Automattic
of
extortion.
Automattic
called
the
lawsuit
“baseless.”
“Silver
Lake
and
WP
Engine’s
attacks
on
me
and
Automattic,
while
spurious,
have
been
effective,”
Mullenweg
wrote.
“It
became
clear
a
good
chunk
of
my
Automattic
colleagues
disagreed
with
me
and
our
actions.”
Mullenweg
gave
employees
until
October
3rd
to
decide
whether
they
wanted
to
leave
the
company.
Employees
who
left
aren’t
able
to
be
rehired.
The
resignations
affected
the
company’s
WordPress
ecosystem
division
the
most,
with
79.2
percent
of
people
who
took
the
offer
working
in
this
part
of
the
business,
according
to
Mullenweg.
“It
was
an
emotional
roller
coaster
of
a
week,”
Mullenweg
writes.
“However
now,
I
feel
much
lighter.
I’m
grateful
and
thankful
for
all
the
people
who
took
the
offer,
and
even
more
excited
to
work
with
those
who
turned
down
$126M
to
stay.”
WordPress
executive
director
Josepha
Haden
Chomphosy
confirmed
a
now-deleted
post
saying
she
left
the
company.
(Originally posted by Emma Roth)
Comments