If you stay updated with WordPress, you might have come across the controversy surrounding Matt Mullenweg’s remarks directed at WP Engine during the concluding moments of WordCamp US. This incident overshadowed what otherwise was a delightful gathering.

In case you missed his statements, the gist is that he criticized WP Engine for supposedly benefiting from WordPress without contributing adequately. He went as far as labeling WP Engine as a “cancer to WordPress.”

Furthermore, he argued that WP Engine misleads users about what “WordPress” truly represents and fails to provide the “authentic” WordPress experience, particularly because it disables post revisions by default.

This topic has been extensively discussed on Twitter/X, so I won’t dwell too much on…

What’s new is that WP Engine appears to be taking Matt’s remarks quite seriously:

On Monday, September 23, WP Engine issued a cease-and-desist letter, which contains some notable allegations. You can find the complete text here, but I would like to highlight what I consider the key points:

It seems that WP Engine is claiming that Matt has been attempting to extort money from them, suggesting that his comments during the WordCamp US Q&A were conditional upon WP Engine meeting his financial demands:

In the lead-up to Mr. Mullenweg’s keynote on September 20 at the WordCamp US Convention, Automattic reportedly began insisting that WP Engine provide substantial payments, threatening to initiate a campaign against WP Engine if their demands were not met.

The correspondence contains screenshots of text exchanges between Matt and several senior executives at WP Engine. One message appears to suggest that he threatened to “go for a scorched earth nuclear approach to WPE.” The letter hints that this was Matt’s strategy if WP Engine failed to satisfy his and Automattic’s financial requests.

To be honest, some of the text exchanges are pretty ludicrous and evoke the vibe of a Mafia extortion.

What astonishes me is that WP Engine claims the requests were for funds to benefit Automattic/WordPress.com – rather than to the non-profit WordPress Foundation.

According to Matt’s comment on Reddit, this sum was expected to be 8% of WP Engine’s overall revenue (approximately $32 million based on projections for 2024), although Matt also suggested that this contribution could be fulfilled through “individuals” as part of the Five for the Future initiative.

Many of these issues trace back to the persistent conflict between Matt’s roles as both the CEO of Automattic and the “benevolent dictator” of the open-source WordPress project.

When he refers to WP Engine as a cancer, is he addressing them as the CEO of a competing for-profit entity or as the spokesperson for the open-source WordPress community? It’s unclear!

In response, Automattic issued its own cease-and-desist letter concerning supposed unauthorized use of trademarks.

Additionally, Matt (or someone with access) discreetly modified the trademark policy of the WordPress Foundation, explicitly mentioning WP Engine. You can view those changes here, which reveal what can only be described as a remarkable degree of pettiness.

In a somewhat related development, it has come to attention that the WordPress Foundation submitted two trademark applications in July — one for “managed WordPress” and another for “hosted WordPress.”

Indeed… there is quite a bit of commotion surrounding this. Given the current trajectory, it looks like this situation might escalate from typical internet squabbles to potential legal battles, so I anticipate further coverage on this topic in the days ahead.

What are your thoughts? Share your opinions in the comments, or join the conversation on Twitter/X.

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Colin Newcomer, an expert in WordPress, has been sharing his insights about the platform for more than seven years. He has been using WordPress since 2006 and comes with practical experience in SEO, content marketing, affiliate marketing, and various facets of digital marketing.

Reflecting back to the days of WordPress 2, I recall reaching out to Matt with some feedback. To my surprise, I received a response that criticized my decision to remove the “Powered by WordPress” text from my site’s footer. It was unexpected, as it seemed he overlooked the fundamental idea of Open Source. Open Source is not about monetary compensation; rather, it embodies a commitment to support the community, which WP Engine embodies effectively.

Let’s be honest… if WordPress operated at its best, there would be no need for WP Engine or any other managed WordPress hosting services. Instead, Matt and the team promote paid plugins that should ideally be part of the core functionality of the platform.

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