Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, was founded by Matt Mullenweg in 2005. Headquartered in San Francisco, Automattic was started to focus on open-source solutions. Eventually powering WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and other services, and plays a major role in the development of WordPress.

WP Engine, founded in 2010 by Jason Cohen, is a managed WordPress hosting provider headquartered in Austin, Texas.

The blog “wordpress™ wank” published a warning about Matt’s behavior:

“How do we know the ‘foundation’ won’t wield trademark violations as a weapon in the GPL fight, using it as an excuse to shut down those promoting non-GPL code or documentation? We expected Automattic wouldn’t do that—being a legitimate business, with a board of directors and all that jazz, where the money men might rein in Matt’s odd impulses. Now, no one else has a say in how the trademark is used or how perceived abuses are managed. Somehow, this is being spun as a win for open source. Awesome.”

Automattic makes a substantial investment into WP Engine, signaling collaboration in the WordPress ecosystem.

In May 2015, WooCommerce and WooThemes were acquired by Automattic for ~ $30 Million

Private equity company Silver Lake invests $250 million in WP Engine, and Automattic ceases to be an investor in WP Engine.

The WordPress Foundation applies for trademarks ‘Managed WordPress’ and ‘Hosted WordPress.’

Automattic seems to impies that Five For the Future is the only way to contribute to the WordPress ecosystem, but it only counts direct contributions to the Matt Mullenweg-led WordPress project, not the broader ecosystem. WP Engine, for instance, contributes through projects like Faust.js, sponsorship of WPGraphQL, and the development of tools like Local and Advanced Custom Fields.

Matt Mullenweg threatens to go ‘scorched earth nuclear’ if demands towards WP Engine are not met, and gives a talk at WordCamp US criticizing WP Engine and Silver Lake.

Matt Mullenweg posts an article on WordPress.org calling WP Engine ‘a cancer to WordPress.’

WordPress.org blocks WP Engine from accessing critical resources, including updates. WP Engine employee accounts on WP.org are disabled, halting plugin updates.

WordPress temporarily lifts WP Engine’s ban after discussions but warns of its reinstatement soon.

Matt Mullenweg states that WP Engine’s misuse of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks is the cause of the dispute, but later admits that it was a tactic to pressure WP Engine to contribute more.

Matt appears on Theo’s (t3.gg) YouTube channel, discussing ongoing issues between Automattic and WP Engine, which later gets cited in legal proceedings.

WP Engine is blocked again from WordPress.org resources, though WP Engine finds a workaround.

Cloudflare’s CEO offers to host WordPress.org for free amidst the escalating conflict between Automattic and WP Engine, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.

Matt Mullenweg admits the trademark is not the problem and is being used as an angle to attack WP Engine.

“The analogy I made is they got Al Capone for taxes,” Mullenweg says. “So, if a company was making half a billion dollars from WordPress and contributing back about $100,000 a year, yes, I would be trying to get them to contribute more.” WP Engine competes directly with the hosting services offered by Automattic and WordPress.com, and Mullenweg argues one of the reasons for its success is the use of “WordPress” across its site. “That’s why we’re using that legal avenue to really, yeah, pressure them. That’s true: we are pressuring them.”

WP Engine sues Automattic and Matt Mullenweg in California court, alleging abuse of power.

Matt threatens a former Automattic employee with legal action over comments made regarding his recent behavior, adding to the controversy.

Matt modifies the ‘What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?’ article on WordPress.org to portray WordPress.com more favorably, contributing to confusion over branding.
Before/After available on bullenweg.com

Matt Mullenweg admits to personally owning WordPress.org and implies he finances it independently, but later clarifies that Automattic provides substantial financial support, including employing over 100 people to work on WordPress.org.

Matt Mullenweg denies that Automattic lawyers have ever said that WordPress.org is a non-profit, contradicting statements made by Automattic’s associate general counsel, Neil Peretz.

WordPress.org adds a checkbox requiring users to confirm they are not affiliated with WP Engine before logging in.

Matt Mullenweg responds to a tweet from a former employee, interpreting it as a death threat, later clarifying his sensitivity to such statements.

Neil Peretz, Automattic’s associate general counsel, suggests Matt is out of control in comments on Hacker News.

Matt bans long-term WordPress contributors for questioning his decision to introduce the WP Engine affiliation ban in the WordPress Slack.

Matt uses @WordPress to retweet a poll showing community sentiment is on WP Engine’s side, later removing the retweet after negative feedback.

Matt Mullenweg forks WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields plugin into Secure Custom Fields and hijacks the WordPress.org plugin page to promote it. This is under the guise of addressing security concerns and removing commercial upsells.

Matt uses @WordPress to dismiss Laura Elizabeth, the founder of Client Portal, after she tweets about her inability to log in to WordPress.org due to her affiliation with WP Engine.

Matt Mullenweg offers to return WP Engine’s access to Advanced Custom Fields if they drop the lawsuit.

On October 14th, WordPress contributor Scott Kingsley Clark announced he was stepping down as leader of the Fields API team due to Matt Mullenweg’s conduct. Scott Kingsley Clark is the lead developer of The Pods Framework, a WordPress plugin more than 10 years old, which served as the inspiration behind the Fields API. Pods was previously sponsored by Automattic. On October 17th, Matt retaliated by disabling Scott’s community accounts.

Joost de Valk Tweets:

People in the WordPress world realize that: hosts are slowly “cutting loose” from w .org.

Matt Mullenweg responds from @WordPress, referencing his own tweet, which contains only references to Automattic-powered services. This is more proof of the WordPress.org ties with Automattic.

Given the horrible legal attacks by @wpengine against us, a number of hosts including @bluehost, @Pressable, @wordpressdotcom, and @WordPressVIP are offering great promotions for customers who want a host who isn’t suing @WordPress.

News articles posted on WordPress.org are pushed to the admin panel of every WordPress install. Matt, referring to himself in the third-person, posts “WP Engine Promotions” to WordPress.org (archive). Then lists: BlueHost (owned by Newfold, which resells Automattic’s hosted WordPress service), Pressable (owned by Automattic), WordPress.com (owned by Automattic) and WordPress VIP (owned by Automattic).

The website Bullenweg.com, which was created to track events and statements specifically related to Matt Mullenweg, has been taken down after receiving threats of legal action from him.