Okay, this confirms a narrative I’ve been considering: Matt committed a degree of profit to his investors, and they’re not receiving it, so he’s chosen to attack WPE in order to reduce competition for revenue and drive paying users to his own product. (“My name is Matt Mullenweg and this is my favorite blog on the Citadel”, etc.)
This is an obvious next step — until revenue increases or expenses decrease, Mullenweg’s corporation is no longer investing in Wordpress beyond the critical minimum necessary to present as if everything is fine. The “until WPE concedes” bit is just redirecting the underlying cause, which is that Wordpress.com isn’t increasing their growth in revenue year-over-year, which makes VC-style investors uneasy — they want hockey sticks, not dividends.
The important thing when dealing with this sort of scenario is not to take the person’s accusations at face value, and not to let them distract you from discussing their own circumstances. If Mullenweg’s moves were intelligent and calculated, then what motivations would this psyops-style propaganda represent? That is the million dollar question that matters here, not the substance of whatever his latest attack is.
“Are you so strapped for cash that you can’t afford to pay your lawyers?” is probably the simplest example of the kind of question that needs to be asked of this latest post. “How many months of runway do you have left before the lawsuit bankrupts you?” is the sort of question that the tech press should be asking. Dissecting the surface-level statements feels vengeful and just; discussing the obvious implications and making them the focus of press responses is much more impactful.
I don't think it's that at all. The motive is quite clear. It's right there in the article:
We’re excited to return to active contributions to WordPress core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse, and WordPress.org *when the legal attacks have stopped*.
This is a move to show how much the development of WordPress depends on Automattic (some 4k hours per week) and how WP Engine is using the product of that effort without giving much back (45 hours per week) - "A Level Playing Field". It all started from this and it sends a message "don't take it for granted".
That's a very shallow assessment of Automattic's business, which has over half a billion in revenue and much of it not from WordPress. You also assume that investor pressure could drive company decisions, which is ridiculous given I vote 84% of the stock. Automattic has infinite runway, we're not a startup stumbling from funding round to funding round.
Automattic (it’s Auto-Matt-Ic as in Matt Mullenweg, who embedded his own name into the company name) is a reflection of Matt’s ego. If he fails his investors, he will view himself as a failure, and that’s not acceptable for someone who has literally embedded their ego in their business. Whether or not he has infinite runway, he does not have infinite VC reputation.
While it’s possible he suddenly woke up one day and decided to become greedy and petty, it seems more likely that with the end of zero-percent interest rates, his investors are nagging him to increase his rate of growth of profit accordingly. Otherwise why rock the boat when, as you note, he’s already making money hand over fist? But it’s not rate of return annually that matters to investors, it’s the rate of growth of rate of return that matters, and that’s almost certainly trending negative by now.
I don’t generally take note of HN usernames when commenting, but noted. Certainly that does put him in the unique position of being able to substantively disprove me, if he chooses to!
However, if Automattic is indeed flush with unlimited runway, then the lawsuit is not in contention for any resources needed by the Wordpress project, which lends credence to this being simple market manipulation — i.e. “we have ceased Wordpress development to drive the community and userbase into pressuring WPE to increase investment into Wordpress open source work”, which only works when there are few (or no) serious competitors. It could be a precursor to taking future development of the Wordpress project closed-source, too. We can only guess.
The legal action at issue apparently "diverts significant time and energy that could otherwise be directed toward supporting WordPress’s growth and health." So there must be some limitation to that runway, no?
This is one of those times I wish HN could support GIFs without it becoming unmanageable. The "You do get how that's worse, right?" clip fits right in here.
Comments
Okay, this confirms a narrative I’ve been considering: Matt committed a degree of profit to his investors, and they’re not receiving it, so he’s chosen to attack WPE in order to reduce competition for revenue and drive paying users to his own product. (“My name is Matt Mullenweg and this is my favorite blog on the Citadel”, etc.)
This is an obvious next step — until revenue increases or expenses decrease, Mullenweg’s corporation is no longer investing in Wordpress beyond the critical minimum necessary to present as if everything is fine. The “until WPE concedes” bit is just redirecting the underlying cause, which is that Wordpress.com isn’t increasing their growth in revenue year-over-year, which makes VC-style investors uneasy — they want hockey sticks, not dividends.
The important thing when dealing with this sort of scenario is not to take the person’s accusations at face value, and not to let them distract you from discussing their own circumstances. If Mullenweg’s moves were intelligent and calculated, then what motivations would this psyops-style propaganda represent? That is the million dollar question that matters here, not the substance of whatever his latest attack is.
“Are you so strapped for cash that you can’t afford to pay your lawyers?” is probably the simplest example of the kind of question that needs to be asked of this latest post. “How many months of runway do you have left before the lawsuit bankrupts you?” is the sort of question that the tech press should be asking. Dissecting the surface-level statements feels vengeful and just; discussing the obvious implications and making them the focus of press responses is much more impactful.
Along the same lines, this could be a pre-emptive action to provide cover for some forthcoming layoffs.
I wonder how the severance packages will compare to the alignment offers... (the 2nd of which may not have ever actually been honoured...)
I don't think it's that at all. The motive is quite clear. It's right there in the article:
This is a move to show how much the development of WordPress depends on Automattic (some 4k hours per week) and how WP Engine is using the product of that effort without giving much back (45 hours per week) - "A Level Playing Field". It all started from this and it sends a message "don't take it for granted".
https://web.archive.org/web/20240927025102/https://wordpress...
https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledges/?order=hou...
That's a very shallow assessment of Automattic's business, which has over half a billion in revenue and much of it not from WordPress. You also assume that investor pressure could drive company decisions, which is ridiculous given I vote 84% of the stock. Automattic has infinite runway, we're not a startup stumbling from funding round to funding round.
Automattic (it’s Auto-Matt-Ic as in Matt Mullenweg, who embedded his own name into the company name) is a reflection of Matt’s ego. If he fails his investors, he will view himself as a failure, and that’s not acceptable for someone who has literally embedded their ego in their business. Whether or not he has infinite runway, he does not have infinite VC reputation.
While it’s possible he suddenly woke up one day and decided to become greedy and petty, it seems more likely that with the end of zero-percent interest rates, his investors are nagging him to increase his rate of growth of profit accordingly. Otherwise why rock the boat when, as you note, he’s already making money hand over fist? But it’s not rate of return annually that matters to investors, it’s the rate of growth of rate of return that matters, and that’s almost certainly trending negative by now.
photomatt is Matt Mullenweg
I don’t generally take note of HN usernames when commenting, but noted. Certainly that does put him in the unique position of being able to substantively disprove me, if he chooses to!
However, if Automattic is indeed flush with unlimited runway, then the lawsuit is not in contention for any resources needed by the Wordpress project, which lends credence to this being simple market manipulation — i.e. “we have ceased Wordpress development to drive the community and userbase into pressuring WPE to increase investment into Wordpress open source work”, which only works when there are few (or no) serious competitors. It could be a precursor to taking future development of the Wordpress project closed-source, too. We can only guess.
The legal action at issue apparently "diverts significant time and energy that could otherwise be directed toward supporting WordPress’s growth and health." So there must be some limitation to that runway, no?
If I had a dime for every instance where Matt shamelessly contradicted himself I'd be a rich man.
Seems like you have it good. It sounds like it is a personal decision to be an insufferable loser in the industry you cultivated.
This is one of those times I wish HN could support GIFs without it becoming unmanageable. The "You do get how that's worse, right?" clip fits right in here.
Well, isn't a private equity-funded legal onslaught a valid reason for struggling? Genuine question.