티스토리 수익 글 보기
Matt Mullenweg
Unlucky in Cards
Automattic 20 & Counter-claims
It’s a bit of Automattic lore, but although I founded the company in June 2005, CNET asked me to stay on for a few more months to finish out some projects, which I did. Our HR systems have me as the second employee, after Donncha O Caoimh (still at the company!) So today is my 20th anniversary at Automattic! It’s 20 years since I started hacking on Akismet, our first product, and on WordPress.com.
The team gave me a sweet surprise! I’ve been fighting for the open web for 20 years, and hope to do it for at least 20 more. There’s a lot of exciting behind-the-scenes stuff happening inside Automattic that also made this day special, but one significant thing is public.
Automattic has finally had its first chance to file its counterclaims that spell out the bad actions of WP Engine and Silver Lake, as reported here by TechCrunch. You may recall that last month, the court dismissed several of their most serious claims, and they responded by filing an amended complaint. In our dogged defense of the free, open, and thriving WordPress ecosystem, Automattic responded today with a comprehensive counter-filing, which you can read in a 162-page PDF here about all the things WP Engine/Heather Brunner and Silver Lake did wrong.
We’ve got receipts!
I don’t think WP Engine employees or investors were aware of the gaslighting they did, hopefully some of this is enlightening. And there’s a lot more discovery to go!
I remember being camped out on your couch on my first trip to SF when you wrote that! I read every book in that apartment while you were coding and listening to the same album over and over.
I don’t know if you remember who the band is, but I’ll be seeing them in a little over a week.
It took Automattic a long time to file this. I am glad they finally did but it should have happened sooner. WordPress Engine is in serious trouble now and probably have to settle once discovery starts heating up, if not before. Replacing Brunner alone wont be enough though. I can only see this ending with Automattic owning a significant stake in WordPress Engine.
Never visit WP Engine website as do no business with them. Just taken a look at it, feels like it is WordPress, like they own WordPress. They don’t own WordPress do they ?
Congratulations on 20 years, Matt!