WP Engine Claims WordPress Founder/Automattic Engaged in $10M Extortion Attempt

Hi all,

Another significant development in the WP Engine/Matt Mullenweg spat.

WP Engine has shared their side of the story in the form of a cease and desist letter.

In summary, WP Engine claims Mullenweg and members of the Automattic board sent threatening messages to the WP Engine CEO, threatening to "go nuclear" on them if they refused to pay Automattic a percentage of revenue amounting to tens of millions of dollars. These threats allegedly continued right up to the day before and on the day of Mullenweg's live-streamed talk at WordCamp.

If true, this would completely change the tone of the dispute and create a mafia-like two-tier licensing system, undermining the GPL and the founding principles of WordPress.org and alienating many of its contributors and the wider community.

If this turns out to be true, do you think Mullenweg/Automattic are fit to continue in their current roles?

 

[AllenTar]

I'm not a fan of WP Engine and its outrageous prices for very average performance, but if this is true, it would be a terrible look for Matt M.

 

[Brantdus]

I don't know much about WP Engine, but they should be credited with securing their massive WordPress installations. Matt should focus more on fixing the weaknesses of WordPress architecture than bashing his competitor. WordPress is a pain point for those providing hosting for it.

 

[Brianhip]

This reads more like a blog post than a cease and desist. Why do they take so long to get to the point of their demands? Matt is entitled to have opinions, and they should stick to the views they find unlawful instead of rambling on about everything he said.

 

[LouisChego]

I'm just confused about the whole thing. Aren't WP hosts a dime a dozen? And if you don't like how they conduct their business, just set one up yourself. I set one up for a friend on AWS, and while it requires some tech savvy, it's not hard for someone with basic tech literacy and the ability to follow instructions.