Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, speaking on stage at TechCrunch disrupts 2024 Wednesday, said he was not worried that the recent legal drama between his company, Automattic, and WordPress host WP Engine could lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said, he would enjoy it.

“There may be a fork. I mean, we’ve had WordPress forks before – probably about three or four times in (WordPress) history,” Mullenweg said, in response to a question about whether he was worried about the potential for a fork. “That’s one of the beautiful things about open source is that there can be a fork.”

Automattic’s CEO also suggested that rival WP Engine had already created the software because the version they are running is “very, very different” from what WordPress core is today. If WordPress were then officially forked due to this growing dissatisfaction with its direction of the community and the legal battle over the use of the WordPress trademark, Mullenweg suggested that would be the best route.

“I think it would be fantastic, actually. So people can have alternative governance or an alternative approach,” he noted.

The executive also highlighted that the size of the WordPress community could support such a move. WordPress 6.7, which will be released in a few weeks, for example, had more than 600 contributors. “Only about 10 percent of them come from Automattic,” Mullenweg said.

Additionally, he noted that the core WordPress software had seen some 40 million downloads since September 17. “The current WordPress business is quite strong,” he added.

The interview took place amid a heated legal dispute with WordPress hosting provider WP Engine, which has upended the open source community and led to the departure of more than 150 Automattic employees who are not from agreement with the new direction of Mullenweg.

Mullenweg alleged that WP Engine’s use of the “WP” trademark is intended to make people believe that WP Engine is officially associated with WordPress, when it is not, and suggests that the company does not enough to contribute to WordPress, which WP Engine (and others) disagree with. As a result, it asks WP Engine to share 8% of its revenues (i.e. the equivalent of revenues in terms of engineering hours working on the core).

“It’s not just about money. It really feels like… if you want to take advantage of the WordPress brand, you have to be part of the WordPress ecosystem,” Mullenweg told Disrupt.

This isn’t the first time Mullenweg has suggested that a fork could be a solution to the ongoing debate surrounding the future of WordPress. Earlier in October, he posted on that he would “accept more forks.”