Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg made a new severance offer to employees on October 16, giving them just four hours to decide if they wanted to resign and receive nine months of severance pay. This new offer followed a previous one where 159 employees had already left the company after accepting six months of pay.
The offer was presented in a Slack message seen by TechCrunch and 404 Media, where Mullenweg outlined that those who chose to resign would lose access to Automattic and WordPress.org, meaning they could no longer contribute to the open-source project under their existing identities.
Terms of the New Offer
In the message, Mullenweg said that anyone interested should send him a direct message with the words, “I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer.” He clarified that no reason for resignation was needed, and he would simply respond with “Thank you.” Employees would keep their office equipment and laptops but lose all access to Automattic’s platforms and WordPress.org.
This new offer was designed for those who missed the first severance opportunity. Mullenweg mentioned that some employees had leaked company information to the press or ex-employees, and he gave them a choice: either leave with the severance offer or be fired the next day without any severance.
First Severance Offer Aimed at Dissidents
The first severance deal, made earlier in October, targeted employees who disagreed with Mullenweg’s stance in his public dispute with WP Engine, a WordPress hosting provider. He had previously called WP Engine “a cancer to WordPress” and accused the company of not contributing enough to the open-source project. In response, the initial severance offer allowed employees to leave with the greater of $30,000 or six months of pay.
As a result, 8.4 percent of the company, including some top leaders, left. Key figures such as Daniel Bachhuber, the head of WordPress.com, Naoko Takano, the head of programs and contributor experience, Daniel Walmsley, the principal architect for AI, and Josepha Haden Chomphosy, WordPress.org’s executive director, were among those who resigned.
Trademark Battle Between Automattic and WP Engine
This dispute with WP Engine, which began last month, has intensified. After Mullenweg’s comments, Automattic sent cease-and-desist letters, and WP Engine responded with a lawsuit accusing Mullenweg and Automattic of “abuse of power, extortion, and greed.” The lawsuit followed actions by Automattic, such as blocking WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org and taking control of a plug-in WP Engine had been managing.
In addition to these issues, 404 Media reported that in July, Mullenweg redirected emails from Blind, an anonymous workplace discussion site, to his own inbox. Employees who used their company email to sign up for the platform had to request login authentication codes directly from Mullenweg. This move was seen as an effort to monitor internal discussions and manage leaks.
At the time of publication, Automattic did not comment on the new severance offer or the WP Engine dispute. The company’s website listed its headcount as 1,731, down from 1,732 earlier in the day, though it’s unclear if anyone accepted the new deal.
Featured Image courtesy of Fikret tozak on Unsplash
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