In January 2025, Mullenweg deactivated WordPress.org accounts of several community members, including two planning to fork WordPress and the CEO of the WP Community Collective nonprofit. He also dissolved the WordPress sustainability team after learning it existed. Mullenweg acknowledged the lawsuits 'could potentially bankrupt me or force the closure of WordPress.org.'
person
Matt Mullenweg
CEO Automattic
Co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic. Controls WordPress.org and the WordPress Foundation. Central figure in the 2024-2025 WP Engine legal dispute over open source governance and trademark control.
Career History
Track Record
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Matt Mullenweg blocked WP Engine from WordPress.org, triggering lawsuits and community crisis
Sep 25, 2024reactive
In September 2024, Mullenweg publicly attacked WP Engine as a 'cancer to WordPress' and demanded 8% of revenue ($32M) as trademark licensing. When WP Engine declined, he blocked their access to WordPress.org, disrupting over a million websites. He then seized WP Engine's ACF plugin without review. WP Engine sued for extortion, unfair competition, and defamation. A court granted a preliminary injunction restoring WP Engine's access. 159 Automattic employees (8.4%) took buyout packages to leave.
Matt Mullenweg co-created WordPress in 2003 as open source software under the GPL license. WordPress grew to power over 40% of all websites globally. Mullenweg founded the WordPress Foundation and Automattic contributed thousands of hours weekly to the open source project (prior to the 2025 reduction to 45 hours/week).