On October 4th, it was reported that Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, recently offered severance packages of $30,000 or 6 months’ salary (whichever is higher) to employees who disagreed with him regarding the conflict with WP Engine. Mullenweg updated on Thursday night that a total of 159 employees, accounting for 8.4% of the company’s total workforce, accepted the offer. Automattic, which operates WordPress.com and its commercial services, has recently been involved in a public dispute with WP Engine, a third-party hosting service provider. Mullenweg described WP Engine as a “cancer” within the WordPress community and banned it from accessing WordPress.org. He alleged that WP Engine violated WordPress trademarks and criticized it for not contributing back to the WordPress open-source project. In response, WP Engine, owned by private equity firm Silver Lake, filed a lawsuit against Mullenweg and Automattic on Wednesday, accusing them of extortion. Automattic described the lawsuit as “baseless.”
“The attacks by Silver Lake and WP Engine against me and Automattic are baseless, but they have worked,” Mullenweg wrote. “It is evident that many colleagues at Automattic disagree with my actions and initiatives.” He gave employees until October 3rd to decide whether they wanted to leave the company, noting that departing employees would not be eligible for rehire.
According to Mullenweg, the departures primarily affected the company’s WordPress ecosystem department, with 79.2% of the employees accepting the severance packages coming from that department. “This week has been like a roller coaster,” Mullenweg wrote. “But now I feel a lot lighter. I am grateful to all colleagues who accepted the severance packages, and I am even more excited about the employees who chose to stay despite turning down $126 million in compensation.”
Additionally, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the executive director of WordPress, confirmed her departure from the company.