Automattic offered employees another chance to leave – this time with nine months of severance pay

Days after 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s offer of six months of severance pay for employees who wanted to leave, the corporate late October 16 made a brand new offer of nine months of severance pay to anyone who would leave immediately. Employees had 4 hours to determine whether or not they wanted to join the contract.

In a Slack message seen by TechCrunch, Mullenweg wrote that those that accept the offer will lose access not only to Automattic but additionally to WordPress.org. This effectively means that folks leaving won’t give you the chance to contribute to the open source project – not less than under their existing ID. This would also mean that they’d be effectively banned from the WordPress community. The transaction was previously announced by, amongst others, 404 Media.

In addition to being the CEO of Automattic, Mullenweg also owns and controls the open source website WordPress.org.

Mullenweg gave him 4 hours’ notice and told him that those that wanted to accept the offer should send him a non-public message: “I am resigning and would like to take advantage of the 9-month buyout offer.”

“You don’t have to give any reason or anything. I will reply, “Thank you.” Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep your office belongings and work on your laptop. You will lose access to Automattic and Worg,” Mullenweg said.

He said, “I think some people were sad that they missed the last window,” and that is why he introduced a brand new, short window.

Automattic didn’t comment on this story by press time. It is unclear whether any of the employees took advantage of the brand new offer. According to the corporate’s website, employment currently totals 1,731 people; a couple of hours ago it was 1732.

The WordPress co-founder’s first offer was addressed to individuals who didn’t agree with his views on Automattic’s fight against the hosting provider WP Engine. The first group of people to leave Automattic included several of the corporate’s top employees, including the pinnacle of WordPress.com (Automtic’s business WordPress hosting arm), Daniel Bachhuberhead of programs and co-creator of the experience Naoko Takanochief AI architect, Daniel Walmsleyand Executive Director of WordPress.org Joseph Haden Chomphosa.

The battle began almost a month ago when Mullenweg called WP Engine the “cancer of WordPress” and accused the independent company of not contributing enough to the WordPress open source project. Over the past few weeks, the fight has included stop-and-desist letters, Automattic accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, a lawsuit filed by WP Engine, and WordPress.org blocking WP Engine’s access and seizing the plugin it maintains.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Automattic was preparing to defend its trademarks by retaining “nice and not-so-nice” lawyers, according to an internal post published earlier this yr by the corporate’s then-chief legal officer.