>One of the many lies in Silver Lake and WP Engine’s C&D was their claim that Automattic demanded money from them moments before our CEO Matt Mullenweg gave his keynote at WordCamp US.
>That is not true. Automattic asked for a verbal agreement that WP Engine would give some percentage of their revenue back into WordPress, either in the form of a trademark agreement or employee hours spent on core WordPress.
I'm not laughing. The whole Wordpress ecosystem was shown to instead be the personal fiefdom of a vindictive fool. A fool willing to completely destroy the reputation and trust of the ecosystem for what looks and smells like a personal vendetta.
The whole idea of the separate entities of Wordpress.org, the Wordpress Foundation (which we learned is somehow not the same as Wordpress.org) and Wordpress.com (through Automattic) is nothing more than a smokescreen. If you're in the business of competing with Automattic in delivering Wordpress hosting, start building an exit plan.
> >That is not true. Automattic asked for a verbal agreement that WP Engine would give some percentage of their revenue back into WordPress, either in the form of a trademark agreement or employee hours spent on core WordPress.
In the term sheet, it's phrased as:
> Commit 8% of its revenue in the form of salaries of WP Engine employees working on WordPress core features and functionality to be directed by WordPress.org.
So, pay for employees to be directed by WordPress.org (not Automattic or WordPress Foundation, apparently just Matt).
Adding to the strangeness, as the owner of WordPress.org, is Matt violating the trademark owned by the foundation or is there another undisclosed licensing agreement?
Well, it is true that money wasn't the only option.
And the quote is out of context.
The article also gives a timetable of conversations that happened between Automattic and WP Engine well in advance; therefore, the demands shouldn't have been a surprise, as claimed.
>That is not true. Automattic asked for a verbal agreement that WP Engine would give some percentage of their revenue back into WordPress, either in the form of a trademark agreement or employee hours spent on core WordPress.
Tomato-Tomato. Comedy gold.