WP Engine Sends Automattic a Cease and Desist Letter Over Mullenweg’s Comments

WordPress hosting service WP Engine shipped on Monday letter requesting to stop and desist to Automattic after its CEO Matt Mullenweg called WP Engine “cancer for WordPress” last week.

The notice asked Automattic and Mullenweg to retract their comments and stop and desist from making statements against the corporate.

WP Engine, which (like Automattic itself) commercializes the open-source WordPress project, also accused Mullenweg of constructing threats against WP Engine ahead of last week’s WordCamp summit.

“Automattic CEO Matthew Mullenweg has threatened that if WP Engine does not agree to pay Automattic — his for-profit subsidiary — a very large sum of money before his September 20 keynote speech at WordCamp US, he will engage in what he calls ‘nuclear, scorched earth warfare’ against WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond,” the letter reads.

“When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg followed through on his threats, repeating false statements that defamed WP Engine to its employees, customers, and the world at large,” the letter added.

The letter went on to assert that Automattic last week began asking WP Engine to pay “a significant percentage of its gross revenues — in fact, tens of millions of dollars — on an ongoing basis” for a license to make use of trademarks equivalent to “WordPress.”

WP Engine defended its use of the “WordPress” trademark under fair use laws and said it was consistent with the platform’s guidelines. The letter also includes screenshots of Mullenweg’s text messages to WP Engine’s CEO and board members, which apparently state that Mullenweg will argue for a ban on WP Engine in his WordCamp keynote if the corporate doesn’t comply with Automattic’s demands.

Automattic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Mullenweg, a co-founder of WordPress, criticized WP Engine last week for generating profits without giving much back to the open-source project, in addition to disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform.

Last week in blog postMullenweg said that WP Engine devotes 47 hours a week to this purpose. “Five for the Future” investment commitment to contribute resources to WordPress’ sustainable growth. By comparison, he said Automattic contributes about 3,900 a week. He acknowledged that while those numbers are only an “approximation,” there may be a big gap in contributions, though each corporations are similar in size and generate about half a billion dollars in revenue.

IN separate blog postHe also added that WP Engine offers customers a “cheap knockoff” of WordPress.

Notably, Automattic invested in WP Engine in 2011, when the corporate raised $1.2 million in funding. Since then, WP Engine has raised over $300 million in equity, nearly all of which got here from a $250 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018.