Anyone who argued that it would stop with WP Engine has properly been tricked.
Matt's first lie here: He said he was open to forking WordPress, he just didn't want WP Engine to access the Wordpress.org servers for free. PMP started serving updates from their own servers and Matt threatened them. So he's trying to have it both ways.
Matt's second lie: hijacking the ACF plugin was about security. And if the quote is real, he basically is admitted that taking over the ACF plugin was an act of retaliation.
My hunch would be that Matt is preparing for wordpress to be sold. So he is making sure the IP is protected and the borders are clearly drawn and valuated.
Anyone who argued that it would stop with WP Engine has properly been tricked.
Matt's first lie here: He said he was open to forking WordPress, he just didn't want WP Engine to access the Wordpress.org servers for free. PMP started serving updates from their own servers and Matt threatened them. So he's trying to have it both ways.
Matt's second lie: hijacking the ACF plugin was about security. And if the quote is real, he basically is admitted that taking over the ACF plugin was an act of retaliation.
My hunch would be that Matt is preparing for wordpress to be sold. So he is making sure the IP is protected and the borders are clearly drawn and valuated.
I've been wondering if he's having some sort of mental health crisis. Some of his behavior has been rather erratic.
This could also explain why he offered the deal for employees to leave. Reduce head count before either an investment round or sale.
Alternatively doubt about the entire ecosystem makes WordPress unsuitable for new projects and degrades the value.