WordPress.org, the self-hosted branch of the WordPress kingdom, has a new Executive Director in Mary Hubbard, who recently left TikTok. Hubbard has worked for WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg before, in 2020, as Chief Product Officer for the managed hosting division WordPress.com.
The game of musical chairs follows the fight between Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and WP Engine. Hubbard’s predecessor was Josepha Haden Chomphosy. She chose to accept the 30,000 dollars severance pay that WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg put up in prospect for anyone who disagreed with his direction regarding WP Engine.
Some 8.4 percent of Automattic staff (159 employees) decided to take him up on that offer. They were given the 30,000 dollar amount or six months’ salary, whichever was higher.
Mullenweg is on the warpath against WP Engine, a company that offers many services using Automattic’s (open source) inventory. According to the WordPress founder, however, the company provides substandard services. In doing so, he says it’s sullying the good name of WordPress and related products such as e-commerce platform WooCommerce.
Paying for assets
In response, WP Engine sued Mullenweg for extortion and abuse of power. That WP Engine lawsuit is the low point for now in the feud between the two companies. Recently, a draft license agreement from Automattic became public, stating that WP Engine would subsequently have to paya monthly fee for the use of WordPress assets. Basically a disincentive policy.
WP Engine feels that Automattic is not fulfilling its promise to manage WordPress as an open-source project and accuses Mullenweg of abusing his control of WordPress.org and the WordPress Foundation for personal gain.
Not contributing enough
WordPress is published under a GPL license, meaning third parties can profit from it without paying licensing fees. Mullenweg doesn’t think that’s a problem as such, as long as organisations contribute to the project. However, he feels that while companies like GoDaddy and WP Engine provide managed hosting services based on his products, they give too little in return. WP Engine, in particular, is now bearing the brunt of Mullenweg’s ire.
Mullenweg has even gone so far as to disconnect all WP Engine customers from WordPress.org, temporarily preventing them from downloading and installing updates or new WordPress plugins.
Complicated organizational chart
Automattic/Mullenweg’s organizational chart, by the way, is fairly complicated. Mullenweg is the co-creator of WordPress and head of the (nonprofit) WordPress Foundation, which manages WordPress as an open source project. At the same time, he is CEO of the profit-driven company Automattic, which markets managed-hosting provider WordPress.com and e-commerce platform Woocommerce, among other things.
Mullenweg also personally owns WordPress.org for self-hosted sites. This is technically separate from Automattic. But apparently the severance pay deal also applied to the former Executive Director of WordPress.org.
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