In response to WooCommerce developer Rodolfo Melogli’s open letter to Matt Mullenweg on X, Mullenweg expressed concerns about the ongoing legal battles. He stated, “The lawsuits will go years and could potentially bankrupt me or force the closure of WordPress.org. It also takes a huge amount of time — there is no “lawyers work on that.””
Melogli urged Matt to pause the current direction and listen to the community. “The community wants a strong future for WordPress—one where everyone, from volunteer contributors to top-level sponsors, can work together without fear of losing what we’ve built.”
Melogli emphasized the need for “stability, transparency, and no drama,” highlighting the community’s desire to focus on their businesses without worrying about upheavals or leadership conflicts.
Matt replied, “Everything I’m doing is to defend the long term health of WordPress. The lawsuits can only be dropped by WPE, as they initiated them.” He also said the lawsuits may continue for years and bankrupt him or force closure of WordPress.
“The cases will stretch into 26 and 27, so it’s hard to say what the environment will be or the court will order.”, said Matt.
On being asked whether he would put WordPress.org under the Foundation and create a fully functional board, Matt said, “If I thought that would further our mission of democratizing publishing, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ve seen those governance structures destroy great software more often than create it.”
I wanted to avoid legal cases which is why there were years of (I thought) good faith negotiations, our next step would have been to file but they had been scheming with Quinn Emmanuel to launch legal attack while pretending to want to do a deal, and filed all the legal cases first. All totally avoidable with any ethical player in the market. (As it has been, there’s no beef with any other players including several larger than WPE.)
-Matt Mullenweg
Automattic – WP Engine Feud
The conflict traces back to WordCamp US 2024, where Mullenweg criticized WP Engine and its owner, Silver Lake, for inadequate contributions to the Five for the Future initiative. He called Silver Lake Managing Director Lee Wittlinger “a schoolyard bully” and announced WP Engine’s exclusion from future WordCamps.
Mullenweg escalated the feud by publishing WP Engine is not WordPress in which he referred to WP Engine as the “cancer” of WordPress. He then banned WP Engine from WordPress.org and introduced a new login requirement, forcing users to confirm they were not affiliated with WP Engine to access the platform.
In response, WP Engine sent a “cease and desist” letter to Automattic demanding that Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, retract and stop making false, harmful, and disparaging statements. They finally won the preliminary injunction against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg and regained access to WP.org and got control of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin.
Community Reactions
Katie Keith of Barn2plugins echoed Melogli’s concerns, saying, “Rudolfo’s words resonate deeply with me, and I’m sure many other people too. I wish so much that his request would be taken on board.”
She also asked Matt, “Please could you explain how any of this protects the long term health of WordPress, as I’m really struggling to see that? I have seen some arguments against (a) the consequences of not contributing enough and (b) the impact of private equity, but every way I look at it, those things pale in comparison to the huge damage I’ve seen to WordPress’ reputation and credibility due to your intentional actions (not the lawsuit). What am I missing because I try to be balanced but can’t see your strategy?”
CEO of Torque, Nick Wilsdon, criticized Mullenweg’s remarks, “Matt Mullenweg casually mentioning that the conflict he started could result in the closure of WordPress.org 🤡 That’s a fun hand-grenade to throw into any potential corporate installation for his presumably non-professional software project.”
WordPress developer Ryan Duff tweeted, “Do you know what happens if @photomatt is bankrupted by lawsuits and forced to close WordPress DOT org? It puts those resources in a position to be bought at a low, low price by companies who have the resources and mental fortitude to run it like an adult.”
Evan Schuman had already speculated a possible shutdown of WordPress.org for all of 2025.
It is difficult now to predict the consequences of the worst happening to a software that now powers over 43% of the internet. But one thing is certain, the future looks bleak unless Matt somehow wins over the community.
| Open letter from Rodolfo Melogli to Matt Mullenweg Dear @photomatt, We love WordPress. It’s not just software; it’s a livelihood for thousands of developers, freelancers, and small agencies. We don’t have millions like you do—every change, every piece of WPdrama costs us time, clients, and money. We need stability. We need to focus on building, supporting, and growing businesses, not worrying about the next big upheaval or leadership conflict. Let’s move toward clarity, collaboration, and transparency. Please consider pausing the current direction to listen. The community wants a strong future for WordPress—one where everyone, from volunteer contributors to top-level sponsors, can work together without fear of losing what we’ve built. We don’t ask this lightly. Our livelihoods depend on it. Thank you. ^Rodolfo Melogli |