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Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employee ( or so 8.4 % of staff)accepted a severing packagethat the company had offered to those who disagree with his direction of WordPress and hishandling of the rough-and-tumble with web hosting provider WP locomotive engine .
Ina blog post , Mullenweg say the software offered $ 30,000 or six months of salary , whichever is high , but the employees who take aim it would not be eligible to be re - hired by Automattic .
Nearly 80 % of people who took the go work in the company ’s Ecosystem / WordPress division , and the rest were in Automattic ’s Cosmos occupation , consist of apps like Pocket Casts , Day One , Tumblr and Cloudup .
Mullenweg , who co - create WordPress and is arguably the facial expression of theopen - source project , tried to put a convinced spin on the announcement , write that the ship’s company “ decide to plan the most generous steal - out package potential , we call it an Alignment Offer . ”
“ HR added some additional item to sweeten the deal ; we wanted to make it as enticing as possible , ” he wrote , and later on added : “ 159 people take the offer , 8.4 % of the company , the other 91.6 % gave up $ 126 M of potential severance to delay ! ”
“ It was an emotional curler coaster of a hebdomad . The day you hire someone , you are n’t expecting them to resign or be fired ; you ’re hoping for a long and mutually beneficial human relationship . Every resignation bunko game a bit , ” Mullenweg wrote .
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Mullenweg and Automattic have been in a clash with WP Engine for almost two calendar week now , in which the CEO has called WP Engine a “ cancer to WordPress , ” criminate it of wrongfully using the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks , andbanning the companyfrom get to the open - source WordPress.org resources .
Both WP Engine and Automattic havesenteach othercease - and - desist letter . And WP Engine before on Thursdayfiled a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg , accusing the company and its chief executive officer of “ abuse of power , ” extortion , and saying the WordPress co - Maker has conflict of interest in handling WordPress as an open - source labor .
Automattic has so far called all of WP Engine ’s claims meritless . “ I detain up last night read WP Engine ’s ailment , trying to incur any deservingness anywhere to it . The whole affair is meritless , and we look onward to the federal court ’s considerateness of their lawsuit , ” the troupe ’s legal interpreter , Neal Katyal , said in ablog post .
Over the last few day , severalpeopleonXhave hinted about a severance offer being circularize among Automattic employees . Mullenweg alsoallegedly DM’d a former employee who posted about the offerand impeach her of attacking the company and him .
Today , some Automattic employeeswho opted to keep their jobsposted messagesin bread and butter of the society and Mullenweg .
you could contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com or on Signal : @ivan.42
