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The feud between WP Engine and Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO, lately got here to a head when the webhosting service sued the latter, accusing him of “abuse of energy, extortion and greed.” In a brand new weblog submit, Mullenweg mentioned his opponent’s assaults on him and his firm have been efficient sufficient in order that “a very good chunk of (his) Automattic colleagues disagree with (him and his) actions.” As a response, he created a “buy-out package deal” that provided staff $30,000 or six months of wage, whichever is increased, in the event that they resign. A complete of 159 folks, or 8.4 % of the corporate, took the provide.
A lot of the staff who left got here from the corporate’s Ecosystem / WordPress enterprise, whereas the remainder got here from the division engaged on apps like Tumblr and Cloudup. As TechCrunch notes, Mullenweg gave the occasion a constructive spin and exclaimed that “the opposite 91.6 % gave up $126 million of potential severance to remain!”
Mullenweg referred to as WP Engine a “most cancers to WordPress” and accused the corporate of violating WordPress’ emblems. He mentioned they provided WP Engine the choice to “pay a direct licensing price, or make in-kind contributions to the open supply undertaking,” however the firm refused. 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 is certainly not coated by the WordPress trademark, however to please not use it “in a method that confuses folks.” It named WP Engine outright and even mentioned that the corporate has “by no means as soon as even donated to the WordPress Basis, regardless of making billions of income on high of WordPress.” The WordPress co-founder additionally banned WP Engine from accessing a few of WordPress’ plug-ins and themes, which broke a number of the web sites it is internet hosting.
WP Engine accused Mullenweg of demanding eight % of the corporate’s month-to-month income as royalty and of libel, slander, in addition to of violations of the Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act and IRS fraud. In a press release, Mullenweg mentioned he stayed up all evening studying the grievance and located the entire thing “meritless.” He added that he is wanting “ahead to the federal courtroom’s consideration of (the) lawsuit.”
159 staff go away WordPress founder’s firm after extortion lawsuit
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