WordPress.com parent company Automattic changes direction … again.
In A blog post With the title “Returning to Core” published on Thursday evening, Automattic announced that it will contribute to the WordPress project. This is despite the fact that this only said last month that the release of 6.8 WordPress Would be the last major release for the whole of 2025.
“After pausing our contributions to regroup, reconsider and plan strategically, we are ready to reduce and completely return to the WordPress project,” says the new blog post. “Expect to find our contributions in all the biggest hits – WordPress Core, Gutenberg, Playground, OpenSvers and WordPress.org. This return is a moment of excitement for us, because it is about continuing the mission in which we have always believed: Democratization publishing for everyone,” it says.
Automattic says that it has learned much of the break in terms of the many ways in which WordPress is used, and that it is now dedicated to help “grow and thrive”.
The message also notes that WordPress is feeding 43% of the web today.
It is unclear what has changed between then and April.
According to sources that spoke with TechCrunch, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg explained in an internal post that was published last night that this year he wants to get a release of 6.9 with an Admin -Versing and something of the “New AI team”. (The latest refer this week’s announcement that WordPress has formed a new team to discuss the development of AI projects.)
“I don’t think that will happen without our contributions,” said the post, according to a source that is familiar with the internal discussions.
Insiders speculate that more is going on than that, and different theories are driven. Some wonder if Mullenweg was put under pressure in this movement or whether he realized that the retirement was not good for his company or his reputation? Others debate if this change of heart has to do with the current lawsuits of Automattic with WordPress Hosting Company, WP Engine, who has called Automattic a “one”threat ”for the WordPress community And a ‘cancer to WordPress’.
Nobody knows what to believe, and none of these backchanthing theories is on line with the officially stated reason.
Automattic was asked for extra comments.
Since 2024, Automattic has been involved in a legal dispute that has to do with how little, in the opinion of Mullenweg, WP Engine contributes to the WordPress project, despite its size and income.
He sees the hosting company as a benefit of the open source work that WordPress does without giving back. Mullenweg also claims that WP engine benefits from the confusion between WordPress and commercial services such as WP Engine. This led him to prohibit the company to gain access to WordPress.org and Sue before the court unauthorized trademark.
Simply put, Mullenweg thinks WP -Motor have to pay A direct license costs or its contributions to the Open Source WordPress project increased, or may not be allowed to use his trademark.
WP Engine replied that it does not think it needs a license and that automattic abusing trademark law, in exchange, sue automattic.
Last month, Automattic dismissed 16% of the staff and said that the restructuring was needed to be more agile and to improve productivity and profitability.
Sarah Perez can be reached at @sarahpez.01 on Signaal and sarahp@techcrunch.com.
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