Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered employees $30,000 or six months of salary to leave the company if they didn’t agree with his battle against WP Engine. In an update on Thursday night, Mullenweg said 159 people, making up 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer.
Automattic, which is in charge of WordPress.com and its commercial services, has been involved in a public dispute with WP Engine after Mullenweg called the third-party hosting service a “cancer” to the WordPress community and banned it from accessing WordPress.org.
Mullenweg has claimed WP Engine is violating the WordPress trademark and criticized the company for not giving back to the WordPress open source project. On Wednesday, WP Engine, which is owned by the private…