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This is a story about the man who has control
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over 40% of all websites.
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A story about the war between two multi-billion dollar companies.
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A story about the crossroads at which the concept of
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open source might currently find itself.
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This is a story about, and I never thought I'd
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make a video about this, WordPress.
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Because WordPress isn't exactly what I immediately associate with
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modern web development, enterprise programming, a PHP blog software.
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If you know, you know. But something happened in the
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WordPress community, a wild story.
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So it's definitely worth taking a closer look.
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And to be honest, at first I thought I'd just
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read two of three articles on a topic and summarise
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them in a video.
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Easy.
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But in the end, I read over 20 news articles,
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countless blog posts, waded through pages of legal documents, watched
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hours of interviews with the people involved, read leaked chat
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messages, basically researched tons of information from various sources.
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Because this is truly an incredible story about money, software
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and the internet, one that will likely be remembered as
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a milestone in the history of open source.
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And that's the story I want to share with you
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here.
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So, grab some popcorn, a coffee, or a tea, and
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sit back, let's get started.
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Let's first take a look at the key players in
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this story.
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At the center is a man who is now 40
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years old named Matt Mullenweg.
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Matt, a web developer, created a fork of the blogging
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software b2/cafelog back in 2003 at the age of 19 after
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its development had been discontinued.
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Matt wrote about this in a blog at the time.
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He was able to create a fork because b2/cafelog was
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GPL-licensed.
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This license allows for the free modification and redistribution of
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software, even for commercial purposes.
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Provided that any software derived from it is also GPL-licensed.
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It's one of the most well known and widely used
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license families in the free end open source world.
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And this project that Matt Mullenweg started back in 2003
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together with another person, you've probably guessed it by now:
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This became WordPress.
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Matt is therefore one of the co-founders of WordPress, and
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to this day, more than 20 years later, he's still
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actively involved in the open source project.
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But he also owns a company, Automattic.
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This software company owns platforms like Tumblr, but primarily makes
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money through services related to WordPress.
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We'll get to that later.
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WordPress, what is WordPress?
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Well, even my wife who knows nothing about software development,
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is familiar with the term.
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Still, for the sake of completeness: WordPress started as a blogging software,
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and has evolved into a fully fledged CMS.
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It's written in PHP and has developed a massive ecosystem
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of plugins, themes, hosting providers and a huge community around
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it.
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WordPress became so successful that by 2023 over 43% of
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the top 10 million websites in the world where built
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with WordPress.
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Mindblowing.
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This makes WordPress the most important CMS we have.
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A PHP based blogging software that today forms the backbone of
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the internet.
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And WordPress remains under the GPL license, meaning the codebase
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is freely usable, modifiable, and can be used to create
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commercial projects.
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And WordPress is indeed commercially used by many many companies.
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One of those companies is WP Engine.
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WP Engine is a US-based hosting provider, but it hosts
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only one software: WordPress.
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That's why it's called WP Engine with WP standing for
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WordPress.
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A fact, that will become very important later.
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Founded in 2010, WP Engine serves over 150 million customers,
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including large enterprises.
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Their pitch: build, host, and manage websites powered by WordPress.
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It's a smart move.
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If you're already planning to create a WordPress site, you
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might choose this provider over a traditional host and
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benefit from features like automatic updates, tailored tools, scalability, expert support
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and optimized performance.
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All designed specifically for WordPress.
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But all that comes with a price, plans start at
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$25 per month, which is quite steep.
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Prices may vary globally, but in Europe, you can usually
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get web hosting for a significantly less.
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And this pricing is already kind of part of the
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dispute, part of the WordPress drama.
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WP Engine makes a lot of money off WordPress.
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They've been so successful that in early 2018, private equity
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firm Silver Lake invested 250 million in the company.
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Silver Lake is a US-based private equity firm focused on
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tech investments.
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A bit of research into Silver Lake shows that many
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of their investments are strongly driven by profit maximization.
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For example in 2010, they invested in the Open Source
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Software Company talend, which develops data management systems and pushed
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aggressive growth strategies.
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In 2017, they acquired shares in Unity, the famous game
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engine.
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And a few years later, Unity came under heavy criticism
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for a sudden and significant price increase for its services.
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A scandal in the community that ultimately led to Unity's CEO
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stepping down.
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It raises the question: how much influence did Silver Lake
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have on these business decisions?
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And in Germany, Silver Lake is also infamous for
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acquiring and dismantling Software AG,
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once the second largest software provider in the country.
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They sold off individual business units to maximize profits.
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So, Silver Lake like many private equity firms focuses heavily
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on profit maximization and in 2018, they entered WP Engine.
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A company whose business model is built on an open
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source blogging platform, WordPress.
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Now one could argue, fine.
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Open Source allows for commercial use.
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And many others make money this way.
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Even WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg does so with his own
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company.
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Automattic.
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Automatic is the company founded by Matt.
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The two Ts in the name, they're a nod to "Matt".
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Automattic makes the majority of its revenue, around half according
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to Matt in an interview, from WordPress, particularly through hosting
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services.
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But they also profit from other products.
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For example, WooCommerce, the most popular e-commerce system for WordPress
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is developed by Automattic.
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And Automattic is certainly no small company.
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Back in 2021, it was valued at 7.5 billion.
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A major player in the industry.
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So, the key players in this drama are Matt Mullenweg,
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the father of the open source WordPress project, his company
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Automattic, which uses WordPress as its core business and WP
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Engine, a competitor of Automattic.
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And now the question is, what happened?
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At the end of September, Matt Mullenweg published a blog
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post on wordpress.org that cost quite a stir.
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But before diving into the content of the post, let's
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clarify, what is wordpress.org?
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Wordpress.org is essentially the official website for WordPress, the open
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source project.
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It's the site referenced in Wikipedia entries and serves
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as the central hub for everything related to WordPress.
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And, according to an interview with Matt, this domain is personally owned
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and managed by him.
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This detail feels important to the story because, in
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my view, it blurs the lines between the open source
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WordPress project and Matt as a private individual.
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For instance, at the bottom of wordpress.org, there's a link
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to ma.tt, Matt's personal blog that we saw earlier.
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And there's also link to wordpress.com.
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And wordpress.com on the other hand is owned by Automattic.
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It's where Matt sells professional WordPress services.
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This creates a clear overlap of interest between the official
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website of the WordPress project and Matt's commercial endeavors.
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And it was on wordpress.org in the blog section that
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Matt published a rant on September 21.
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It has to be said and repeated.
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WP Engine is not WordPress.
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My own mother was confused and thought WP Engine was
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an official thing.
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Their branding, marketing, advertising and entire promise to customers is
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that they are giving you WordPress, but they're not.
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And they're profiting off of the confusion.
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WP Engine needs a trademark license to continue their business.
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I spoke yesterday at WordCamp about how Lee Wittlinger at
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Silver Lake, a private equity firm with 102 billion assets
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under management can hollow out an open source community.
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To summarize, they do about half a billion in revenue
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on top of WordPress and contribute back 40 hours a
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week.
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Automattic is a similar size and contributes back 3,915 hours
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a week.
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So Silver Lake, as we discussed earlier, invested heavily in WP
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Engine.
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And now Matt says: OK, WP Engine makes a lot of
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money off WordPress but contributes very little to its development
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only 40 hours per week. Another company, Automattic, his company,
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let's not forget, does a lot more. Allegedly investing 100
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times that amount.
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And at first glance, it's a morally valid argument.
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Companies can use WordPress, but it's problematic if they only
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take and don't give back.
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Assuming that's all true.
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WP Engine, for instance, claims they contribute significantly more overall.
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Still, one could argue, Automattic sets a better example in
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this regard.
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What I find particularly interesting though is that Matt accuses
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WP Engine of giving the impression that they are WordPress.
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But from my perspective as an outsider, I find wordpress.com
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far more confusing than WP Engine.
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Before researching this story, I often stumble across wordpress.com and
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couldn't fully grasp whether it was official or not
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and Matt raises this very point.
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WP Engine needs a trademark license.
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This debate centers on who is allowed to associate themselves
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with the WordPress name and who isn't.
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It turns out there is a way to acquire rights
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or licenses for the WordPress project, but who owns the
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WordPress trademark?
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A quick research reveals that the trademark is owned by
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the WordPress foundation.
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What is the WordPress foundation?
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The WordPress foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt
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Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress Open Source
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project to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.
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All right, so a foundation. Sounds good at first glance,
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it's an entity you can donate to if you want
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to support the Open Source WordPress project.
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They even offer a scolarship program.
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On their website, you'll also find the trademark policy, which
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states: The WordPress foundation owns and oversees the trademarks for
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the names and logos of WordPress as well as a
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few other WordPress related brands.
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But it gets more interesting further down: If you would
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like to use the WordPress trademark commercially, please contact Automattic.
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They have the exclusive license.
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A bit complicated,
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Matt Mullenweg himself agrees as he mentioned
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in a recent interview with Tech Crunch.
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I will link to that below in the video description.
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Because originally, the WordPress trademark belonged to Automattic, but in
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2010, they transferred it to the WordPress foundation, however, Automattic
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retained the exclusive license for commercial use.
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So this was a positive move in principle, Matt's company
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handling over a well-known trademark to a foundation.
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According to statements at the time, it was because Matt
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wasn't sure if he'd always remain the CEO of Automattic
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and he wants the main banner, WordPress, to be protected
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as a beacon for Open Source freedom.
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But Automattic ensured they kept the exclusive right to
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commercial use the WordPress trademark.
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So but what exactly does "use the WordPress trademark commercially"
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mean?
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According to the trademark policy: All other WordPress related businesses
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or projects can use the WordPress name and logo to
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refer to and explain their services, but they cannot use
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them as part of a product, project, service, domain name
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or company name and they cannot use them in any
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way that suggests an affiliation with or endorsement by the
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WordPress foundation or the WordPress Open Source project.
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For example, a consulting company can describe its business as
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"123 Web Services offering WordPress consulting for small
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businesses", but cannot call its business "The WordPress Consulting Company".
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Okay, so it means you can make money with WordPress,
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but you're not supposed to officially present yourself as WordPress.
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So, does WP Engine do that? Sure, WP
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is meant to stand for WordPress, but they don't actually
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use the full term WordPress in their name.
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But the trademark policy also mentions something about WP.
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The abbreviation WP is not covered by the WordPress trademarks,
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but please don't use it in a way that confuses
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people. For example, many people think WP Engine is
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WordPress Engine and officially associated with WordPress, which it's not.
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They have never once even donated to the WordPress foundation
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despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
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Okay, that's wild. They explicitly mention WP Engine here and
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state that it violates the rules because it's supposedly confusing.
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However, this wasn't always the case.
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As of September 24, according to the Wayback Machine,
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it still said: The abbreviation WP is not covered by
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the WordPress trademarks and you're free to use it in
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any way you see fit.
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All right, so this is fascinating.
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Matt publicly calls our WP Engine on wordpress.org urging
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them to pay licensing fees and then just a few
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days later, the trademark usage policy on the WordPress foundation's
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website, which he co-founded and very still sits on the
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board alongside two others, is updated to WP Engine's detriment.
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That all said, I want to clarify, I'm not a
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lawyer or a judge, WP Engine's public branding surely involves
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more than just their company name, maybe they do
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violate the trademark usage policy.
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I don't know.
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I also can't determine the legality of changing such a
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policy and then expecting companies to pay up.
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What I can do is to lay out some facts which
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paint, in my view, a very intriguing picture of how
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Matt operates across the platforms he controls.
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So on wordpress.org, he not only demands money from WP
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Engine for trademark violations but also labels than as "cancer
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to WordPress" and he repeatedly uses a strangely specific example,
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whether in interviews blog posts or elsewhere. Because WordPress has
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a feature for revisions, meaning all changes to posts or
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pages are tracked so that every modification remains accessible.
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It's a safeguard against data loss.
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Matt says: "WP Engine turns this off."
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So, at least by default, this feature is disabled on
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WP Engine and while it can be re-enabled it only
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allows for the last three revisions, which is not aligned
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with the WordPress standard.
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He claims: What WP Engine gives you is not WordPress,
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it's something that they've chopped up, hacked butchered to look
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like WordPress but actually they're giving you a cheap knockoff
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and charging you more for it.
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And why?
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Allegedly to save money, less data storage means lower costs.
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Sounds logical, I guess, but does it ruin WordPress for users?
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Well, that's debatable.
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Beyond this blog post, Matt also takes more concrete action.
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On September 23, his company Automattic sends a cease and
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desist letter to WP Engine through its lawyers, citing violations
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of our clients intellectual property rights.
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They demand back payment of licensing fees, which can only
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be calculated after reviewing WP Engine's detailed financial records, however,
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Automattic estimates, this could amount to around 8% of WP
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Engine's 400 million annual revenue. Over 32 million in
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lost yearly licensing income.
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This is a hypothetical calculation as Automattic itself acknowledges but
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it gives you a sense of the scale they're aiming
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for.
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In short: they're asking for a lot of money and they
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give WP Engine until the third of October, 10 days,
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to comply.
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WP Engine doesn't take the long to respond. They reply immediately
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and, unsurprisingly, they're not happy.
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They refuse to pay and state, Mr.
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Mullenweg’s covert demand that WP Engine hand over tens of
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millions to his for-profit company Automattic, while publicly masquerading as
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an altruistic protector of the WordPress community is disgraceful.
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And I want to be clear:
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I'm not here to take sides with Silver Lake, WP Engine,
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multi-billion dollar companies or private equities, but this aspect is
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undeniably essential.
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On the one hand, this is a legal dispute between
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two companies, on the other, it's about a massive open-source
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project and Matt Mullenweg is undeniably a significant figure in
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the open-source world.
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Whatever, one thinks of the WordPress, Matt has created something
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incredibly valuable for a lot of people. Something anyone can
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use for free.
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And Matt says many things that are absolutely correct in
00:15:42
my opinion.
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On his personal blog on September 17, just days before
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the post on wordpress.org, he wrote extensively about the importance
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of open-source, that software can give you more freedom.
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On September 20, at WoldCamp US, a WordPress conference,
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he read this blog post aloud.
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Freedom to hack.
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Freedom to charge.
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Freedom to break it.
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Freedom to do things I disagree with.
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Freedom to experiment.
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Freedom to be yourself.
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In it he emphasizes the importance of not just taking,
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but also giving back.
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If everyone only seeks to profit without contributing to an
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open-source project, it will ultimately collapse and I completely agree
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with that.
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And of course, it's no coincidence that Matt gave this
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speech shortly before Automattic went public with their demand for
00:16:25
money from WP Engine.
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He doesn't hide his intentions either.
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Speaking of WP Engine, Silver Lake and their Managing Director Lee Wittlinger,
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he says: Silver like, doesn't give a dang about your
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open-source ideals.
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You can kind of see when there's like one person,
00:16:39
one thing behind all of this. And it's just like
00:16:44
a schoolyard bully.
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You know, this is, I know this is spicy, this
00:16:48
is a lot to call out, but unfortunately this has
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been going on since they bought WP Engine in 2018.
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A "schoolyard bully" who's using their influence over WP
00:16:57
Engine solely to focus on profits while giving nothing back.
00:17:01
And, as Matt himself admits, this is a spicy topic.
00:17:04
It's particularly spicy because before this talk, there were some
00:17:09
chat messages Matt sent to representatives of WP Engine.
00:17:12
About the presentation he was preparing to give.
00:17:15
I have 14 slides so far, working title for the
00:17:18
talk: "How Private Equity can Hollow out and Destroy Open-Source
00:17:22
Communities, a Story in 4 Parts."
00:17:24
Matt kind of threatens WP Engine by stating that he
00:17:27
will speak poorly of them publicly at WordCamp and
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demands negotiations.
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Just called, should I run these slides or not?
00:17:34
Is next week a negotiation on the percent or is
00:17:36
it happening at all?
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I'm not going to be able to walk it back.
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I know that this is the nuclear option.
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It sets us down a specific path.
00:17:44
And right before the talk, he sends another threat to
00:17:47
WP Engine.
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I'm literally waiting for them to finish the raffle so
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my talk can start.
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I can make it just a Q&A about WordPress very
00:17:54
easily.
00:17:55
So if WP Engine had caved and agreed to pay,
00:17:57
Matt likely wouldn't have taken this issue public.
00:18:00
As we know now, WP Engine didn't back down.
00:18:03
By the way, these chat messages were published by WP
00:18:06
Engine through a legal filing.
00:18:07
Matt Mullenweg addressed these messages at least partially in the
00:18:11
interview with Tech Crunch.
00:18:12
He confirmed certain phrases and didn't deny the messages overall,
00:18:16
so we can reasonably assume the messages are authentic.
00:18:18
But Matt points out that these messages are
00:18:20
of course only half the story.
00:18:22
Taken out of context.
00:18:23
No chat messages from WP Engine employees have been published.
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He also claims this is just the tip of the
00:18:29
iceberg. According to him, Automattic and WP Engine had been
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working on a deal for 18 months.
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He feels strung along, deceived, and is now taking this
00:18:37
route.
00:18:37
WP Engine, unsurprisingly, sees things differently.
00:18:40
Take claim to invest millions in WordPress, develop plugins for
00:18:43
it and actively contribute to its core development.
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They demand that the public accusations stop and refer to
00:18:49
the situation as extortion.
00:18:50
So this legal letter was sent on September 23.
00:18:54
They very next day, wordpress.org blocked WP Engine.
00:18:59
So if you have installed WordPress, you've likely also installed
00:19:01
plugins.
00:19:02
Wordpress.org provides automatic updates for these to end users, including
00:19:07
WP Engine's customers. At least until September 24. On that
00:19:11
day, Matt abruptly blocked WP Engine's access.
00:19:13
And this decision made waves, especially because it was seen
00:19:17
as potentially putting sites at risk.
00:19:19
Because the concern is clear: updates often address security vulnerabilities and
00:19:23
without them, users are at risk.
00:19:25
However, it's also debatable whether WP Engine has a legal
00:19:28
right to access wordpress.org in absence of contracts,
00:19:31
payments and other agreements.
00:19:32
Regardless of who's in the right, Matt's move created
00:19:35
tangible consequences.
00:19:36
An interesting twist is that WP Engine developed a very
00:19:39
popular WordPress plugin: Advanced Custom Fields or ACF.
00:19:43
Designed to simplify content creation in WordPress.
00:19:46
And this plugin isn't just used by WP Engine's customers,
00:19:48
but by many other WordPress users as well.
00:19:50
And it, too, was hosted on wordpress.org.
00:19:54
This meant the customers of WP Engine, the plugin creators,
00:19:57
could no longer receive updates for it.
00:19:59
And since ACF is widely used and reportedly had a
00:20:02
security vulnerability, Matt Mullenweg decided to fork the
00:20:05
project himself, renaming it "Secure Custom Fields".
00:20:08
And he justified his actions by citing the WordPress plugin
00:20:11
guidelines specifically paragraph 18, which states, he has the right
00:20:15
to make changes to a plugin, without developer consent, in
00:20:18
the interest of public safety.
00:20:20
So Matt essentially hijacks a very popular plugin from WP
00:20:23
Engine and decides to continue its development himself.
00:20:26
It's kind of funny in a way.
00:20:28
I mean, WP Engine leverages WordPress' licensing terms to their
00:20:31
advantage, so why shouldn't Matt use the plugin guidelines to his?
00:20:37
As you've likely gathered from my comments in this video,
00:20:40
this is a double-edged sword.
00:20:41
Matt Mullenweg's actions are dividing the WordPress community.
00:20:44
On Reddit, some have started discussing whether it's time to
00:20:47
fork WordPress to escape this publicly aired conflict.
00:20:49
Matt was once widely beloved within the community but now
00:20:53
there's a sense of uncertainty, both among individual contributors and
00:20:56
companies.
00:20:56
What exactly constitutes a trademark violation involving WordPress, what doesn't,
00:21:01
what services are permissible to offer.
00:21:03
It's unfortunate that there seems to be a blurring
00:21:05
of lines between Matt, the open source visionary, and Matt,
00:21:09
the business man. In the end, his company is simply
00:21:11
trying to secure a significant payout from another company.
00:21:14
Against the backdrop of this conflict, Matt offered all Automattic
00:21:17
employees an option:
00:21:18
If they disagree with the company's decisions, they could take
00:21:21
severance package of $30,000 or 6 months of salary,
00:21:25
whichever is higher.
00:21:26
Interestingly, 159 employees, about 8% of Automattic's workforce took him up
00:21:31
on the offer, and resigned.
00:21:33
Clearly, not everyone is on board with his actions.
00:21:36
Even among WordCamps, those WordPress conferences,
00:21:38
there's resistance. For example, WordCamp Sidney posted on X
00:21:42
that day were instructed by official channels not to allow
00:21:45
WP Engine as a sponsor. They expressed disappointment over this
00:21:49
decision.
00:21:49
And another now deleted tweet from them stated: They, WP
00:21:53
Engine, have given so much to support the Aussie WP community
00:21:56
over the past 10 years.
00:21:58
It's not just about contributing dev back to core.
00:22:00
In the open source world, there's a term:
00:22:02
Benevolent dictator for life.
00:22:04
It refers to someone who, despite a large community contributing
00:22:07
to a project, ultimately has the final say, allowing them
00:22:10
to push things forward and defend the project's core values.
00:22:13
And Matt can certainly be described this way.
00:22:16
In fact, David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Ruby on Rails framework
00:22:19
and a prominent figure in open source, referred to him
00:22:22
as such in a blog post on October 13.
00:22:25
And David doesn't necessarily take Matt's side, but he does
00:22:28
make a striking point.
00:22:29
Using an open source project like WordPress as leverage
00:22:32
in this contract dispute and weaponizing its plugin registry
00:22:36
is an endangerment of an open source peace that has reigned
00:22:39
decades, with peace-time dividends for all.
00:22:42
And he also says something that deeply resonates with me
00:22:45
after researching this story: Please don't make me cheer for
00:22:48
a private-equity operator like Silver Lake, Matt.
00:22:51
Yes, exactly.
00:22:53
So now we wait for the courts to decide.
00:22:55
And we already have an initial ruling. In early
00:22:57
December, a California district court issued a preliminary injunction requiring
00:23:01
wordpress.org to restore WP Engine's access to
00:23:04
resources and plugins.
00:23:06
The court sided with WP Engine, suggesting that Automattic's actions
00:23:10
were harmful to their business.
00:23:12
And it noted that Automattic targeted WP Engine specifically while
00:23:15
ignoring other competitors.
00:23:17
Automattic has announced its intention to appeal this decision. However,
00:23:20
as mentioned, this is only a preliminary ruling.
00:23:23
It remains in effect until a final judgment is reached,
00:23:26
which could take years.
00:23:30
All in all, I have very mixed feelings about this
00:23:30
topic. Like most software developers, I benefit immensely from open
00:23:35
source.
00:23:35
Having someone with influence stand up publicly to defend open
00:23:39
source against corporations is, in principle, a good thing.
00:23:42
The future of open source is undeniably challenging.
00:23:44
Major companies like Microsoft, Amazon, etc.
00:23:47
also heavily rely on open source software.
00:23:49
However, for example, through cloud usage, they often obscure the
00:23:52
modifications they make to the software, making access to these
00:23:56
changes difficult.
00:23:57
But under the licensees like GPL, this access should be
00:24:00
guaranteed.
00:24:01
Companies make billions from open source and benefit from it.
00:24:04
And that's fine to some extent, but the projects themselves
00:24:07
shouldn't suffer because of it.
00:24:09
But at the same time, Matt clearly has financial interests.
00:24:12
His company wants money from another company.
00:24:14
A lot of money.
00:24:15
8% of revenue.
00:24:16
No other company has to pay that much, as
00:24:18
he openly admits in another interview and even threatens more.
00:24:22
I put your link to the interview and a lot
00:24:24
of other sources I used in the video description.
00:24:26
He's within his rights, perhaps, but the various roles Matt plays,
00:24:29
a private individual, co-founder of WordPress, board member of the
00:24:33
WordPress Foundation and CEO of Automattic, start to blur.
00:24:36
Furthermore, Matt once had shares in WP Engine, which
00:24:39
he had to sell to Silver Lake.
00:24:41
So it all leaves a bitter taste.
00:24:43
Matt is undeniably leveraging his power, not just against WP
00:24:46
Engine, but also in one of humanity's greatest ongoing debates.
00:24:50
Recently, he added a checkbox to the login window on
00:24:52
wordpress.org which users must agree to before logging in.
00:24:58
I'll cover this spicy topic in another video.
00:25:01
But I'd love to hear your thoughts, whether on pineapple
00:25:03
on pizza or on the WordPress drama.
00:25:05
Share your opinions in the comments.
00:25:07
Let me know what you think about the story and
00:25:09
if you've enjoyed the video, I'd also greatly appreciate a
00:25:11
like or a subscription.
00:25:12
See you next time.
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