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Happy weekend! It's January 31 and we're covering Automattic's new legal team, Festinger Vault's return, and more.
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1. Gibson Dunn Takes Over Automattic's Legal Defense
Gibson Dunn, a law firm regarded as one of the most feared in U.S. litigation, has taken over Automattic and Matt Mullenweg's legal defense in their ongoing lawsuit against WP Engine.
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On Wednesday, Neal Katyal and his firm Hogan Lovells officially withdrew from the case. It's not clear why they've been replaced. The Repository contacted Automattic and Mullenweg for comment but didn't hear back.
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In recent interviews with CIO and at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mullenweg said he wanted to negotiate with WP Engine. His comments, coupled with the mid-suit change in legal teams, raise questions about whether WP Engine may have refused to talk or settle, pushing Automattic to rethink its strategy and, possibly, bring in a legal team better suited for aggressive litigation ahead of a trial.
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So who's Gibson Dunn? The firm is known for representing tech giants like Meta, Apple, and Microsoft. In 2023, BTI Consulting Group named Gibson Dunn and Quinn Emanuel — WP Engine's legal counsel — as two of the "Fearsome Foursome" firms in U.S. litigation, describing them as "relentless, cunning, aggressive, very smart" and that they "play to win — and win big."
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2. Festinger Vault Returns After Settling Legal Dispute with Automattic
Festinger Vault is "back and better than ever," according to Martin Groot, founder of the controversial GPL club, who announced on Monday that he has settled his legal dispute with Automattic.
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In an announcement on the Festinger Vault site — and in an unsolicited email sent widely across the WordPress community — Groot said he wouldn't be disclosing any details about the settlement but added that he had removed all Woo and WordPress trademarks and products created by Automattic from his platform.
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On Bluesky, WPBakery marketer Lawrence Ladomery posted, "Maybe this one would have been better to litigate and win to set a precedent and dissuade others to operate as Festinger does?" His was a sentiment shared on Post Status where folks also expressed disappointment that Automattic didn't fight the case further.
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"So now every company who has their trademark violated by Festinger Vault can/should do the same? Not the best outcome π" posted Taco Verdonschot, Director of Community & Partnerships at Emilia Capital.
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"While I'm not surprised he'd just continue (Festinger Vault person), I'm just so vehemently opposed to his legal piracy that I cannot help but feel physically repulsed by that email," added Jon Ang, Director of Sales at Human Made.
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- In the latest episode of Scaling Enterprise, Brad Williams (CEO of WebDevStudios) and Tom Willmot (CEO of Human Made) unpack the State of Enterprise WordPress 2024 report. Unexpected trends include a rise in enterprises using only WordPress (55%, up from 38%) and a decline in headless adoption (75% now say they don't use it)—We're past peak headless CMS as an industry," Willmot noted. The data also shows engineering teams are driving CMS decisions more than leadership, and 90% of enterprises now manage WordPress in-house, reducing reliance on agencies. While 75% of enterprises plan to continue using WordPress, that's down from 90% last year—"Are they actively planning a move, or just exploring other options?" Williams asked, signaling a trend to watch (Do the Woo)
- Podcaster Lex Fridman, who has interviewed everyone from Elon Musk to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that he would "likely" interview Matt Mullenweg in a now-deleted post on X asking folks for questions and topic suggestions (X)
- WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard will join Greg Williams, WIRED's Deputy Global Editorial Director, for a panel discussion on February 20 about the future of the web at Techarena 2025, a tech conference in Stockholm, Sweden (Techarena)
- The WordPress Community Collective (WPCC) recently pushed back against a request by WordPress Community Support (WPCS) to consider changing its name. In an email reply to WPCS, President Sé Reed noted that the nonprofit hadn't violated the terms of the WordPress Foundation's trademark usage policy and had no plans to change its name (The WPCC)
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- The WordPress Training Team's goals for 2025 focus on getting more people to use Learn WordPress (Make WordPress Training)
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- iThemes founder Cory Miller, who recently sold his stake in Post Status and has been part of A2 Hosting's acquisition as the company's Chief Evangelist, has called on the WordPress community to support independent media. Reflecting on his time running Post Status, Miller said it was critical that folks supported platforms like Post Status, The WP Minute and PressConf because they provided industry insights, fostered community engagement, and held key stakeholders accountable. He said without financial backing from businesses that benefit from these businesses, these resources would disappear, weakening the ecosystem as a whole (The WP Minute)
- Podcaster Matt Medeiros has launched CMS Minute, a limited-series podcast exploring the evolving CMS landscape. Sponsored by Ghost founder John O'Nolan, the series aims to broaden industry perspectives beyond WordPress. Medeiros, known for Matt Report and The WP Minute, cites concerns over WordPress leadership and competition as key reasons for expanding his focus beyond WordPress (CMS Minute)
- In 2024, Equalize Digital audited 17 WordPress sites, 2 JavaScript apps, and 5 plugins, uncovering 255 unique accessibility issues—84% of which required manual testing to catch, highlighting the limitations of automated tools. Common problems included low-contrast text, missing focus indicators, and unannounced status messages. Homepages averaged 35 accessibility errors, showing that many sites still fall short on accessibility best practices (Equalize Digital)
- On the latest episode of Woo Agency Chat, hosts Robbie Adair, Robert Jacobi, and Marcus Burnette discuss AI's growing role in WordPress and WooCommerce's evolving core features. Jacobi predicts a "big, big push" in AI agents this year, while WooCommerce's more-in-core initiative raises questions for third-party plugin developers (Do the Woo)
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- A2 Hosting has been acquired by World Host Group, a private equity-backed company managing 14 hosting brands. Founder and CEO Bryan Muthig called the move a natural step for growth, giving A2 access to 13+ global data centers and expanded resources. Under its new ownership, A2 plans to enhance support, upgrade infrastructure, and introduce new agency tools. A revamped hosting control panel is set to launch in April 2025. Muthig said A2's focus on performance and customer service would remain unchanged (worldhost.group)
- Automattic has backed Openvibe, a mobile app that integrates multiple open social networks, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads and Nostr. On Tuesday, the Prague-based company announced it had raised $800,000 in an investment round led by Czech Founders VC, including Automattic and Tensor Ventures. Openvibe founder and CEO MatΔj Švancer told Tech.eu that after Automattic initially rejected his request for investment, he booked a flight to Iceland on a whim to meet Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg to convince him to invest. Automattic's latest investment comes after the company acquired Beeper, a universal chat app, last year. In recent months, Mullenweg has said publicly that his expanded life goals now include democratizing commerce and messaging in addition to democratizing publishing (Tech.eu)
- WPMU DEV CEO James Farmer says 2024 was the year his company "made hosting cool again." Last year, the company behind the popular Smush plugin introduced High-Frequency Hosting plans, expanded into 12 new hosting regions, and launched new services, including domain reselling and webmail (WPMU DEV)
- During Crafted Future: Driving Innovation, a recent panel discussion hosted by WP Engine and The Webby Awards, WP Engine's Director of Digital Experience Caleb Eubanks talked about how the company is using AI to streamline support, cut call volume, and personalize web experiences. He also touched on emotion-based personalization, where AI could adapt based on user sentiment: "When somebody gets excited, you know they're ready to buy. The tools aren't there yet, but that concept of building on emotion is certainly interesting." (WP Engine)
- Crocoblock's Anna Hurko talks about her journey from working in support to leading the plugin company as CEO (WP Tavern Jukebox | HeroPress)
- WordPress VIP has released a video series featuring seven agency partners, including 10up, Big Bite and rtCAmp, sharing how they use AI to streamline publishing for their clients (WordPress VIP)
- Ariele Krantzow, Pressable's new Marketing Lead, is shaking up marketing at the Automattic-owned managed WordPress host with a bigger push into video and more direct outreach at WordCamps. Speaking with podcaster Matt Medeiros, she said Pressable's focus was quality over scale, adding, "If we're just trying to be similar to [competitors], then what's the point? We have a better product. That's why we're doing all of this." (The WP Minute)
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→ Plugins, Products & Themes
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- WordPress themes are in crisis due to Full Site Editing (FSE), says Hendrik Luehrsen, CEO of Luehrsen // Heinrich. Luehrsen argues that FSE has made themes more complex, limiting high-quality offerings and slowing adoption. "While investments in WordPress tooling continue, themes, the core components that users interact with, have seen little external innovation or funding," Luehrsen writes. He calls for the WordPress community to redefine themes to better align with user expectations and provide more ready-made solutions (KrautPress)
- Entrepreneur Kevin Geary has called for better naming conventions in page builders. He argues that terms like "block," "section," and "container" are frequently misapplied, leading to confusion among advanced users and steep learning curves for beginners. Geary is currently developing Etch, which he describes as a "next-era visual development environment for WordPress." (geary.co)
- Elegant Themes has released a seventh public alpha ahead of its upcoming Divi 5 release (Elegant Themes)
- Developer Robert DeVore has launched Plugin Pal, an AI-powered plugin generator for WordPress that produces good code that's secure and localization-ready (Robert DeVore)
- James LePage, whose company WPAI was recently acquired by Automattic, has teased building an eCommerce site for WordPress with only his voice and AI. "This is an awesome demo and has me excited for what we are working on @Automattic and for the entire WordPress ecosystem," he posted (X)
- Woo DevChat kicked off 2025 with a look back at WooCommerce's biggest updates in 2024—and many users may have missed them. Hosts Marcel Schmitz and Mike Andreasen highlighted key upgrades, including full-text search, order attribution tracking, and multi-step checkouts. Marcel noted WooCommerce is actively closing feature gaps with Shopify by integrating more advanced analytics, streamlined checkout experiences, and built-in tools for upselling and product recommendations (Do the Woo)
- GeneratePress isn't building a page builder—it's doubling down on the block editor, according to developer Ian Svoboda. He says the theme and its companion tools, GenerateBlocks and GenerateCloud, are staying as close to WordPress core as possible while adding key enhancements like deep ACF integration and a new font system that outperforms WordPress' default font system (Webmasters.fm)
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- More than 10,000 WordPress websites have been hijacked to spread malware targeting both macOS and Windows users, according to security company c/side. Attackers exploited websites using outdated versions of WordPress and plugins to inject malicious malware, tricking visitors with fake browser update prompts. c/side says it's the first recorded case of these threats being spread via client-side attacks (TechCrunch)
- Users of the Better Find and Replace plugin are urged to update to the latest patched release following the disclosure of a privilege escalation vulnerability (Patchstack)
- Patchstack's X account was compromised last week. CEO Oliver Sild says the company hasn't been able to resolve things with X's support team (X)
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- LoopConf, a conference for WordPress developers, is making a comeback in 2025 after a seven-year hiatus. Marking a decade since its inaugural event, the conference will return on 25 September 2025, this time in the United Kingdom (LoopConf)
- More PressConf speakers were announced this week: Jeremy Saxey (co-owner of RadiateU), Karim Marucchi (CEO of Crowd Favorite), Tammie Lister (co-founder of Guildenberg), Brian Coords (Developer and educator), and Rich Tabor (Product Manager at Automattic). PressConf will be held in Tempe, Arizona, from April 23-26 (pressconf.events)
- The call for organizers is now open for WordPress Accessibility Day 2025, a 24-hour virtual event set for October 9-10. The WP Accessibility Day board is aiming to build on last year's success, which saw 2,448 attendees from 79 countries (WordPress Accessibility Day)
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π§ Chris Reynolds says he was "pleasantly surprised" digging into Drupal CMS (Pantheon)
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π€ How a single mom of six got a 7,724% ROI with WordPress.com's Blaze tool (Automattic)
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β© The 15+ fastest WordPress hosting companies compared over 3 years (WP Shout)
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π€ Matt Medeiros built an app with AI and now he's scared for WordPress (YouTube)
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π§° Wholegrain Digital highlights some free accessibility tools ahead of the European Accessibility Act 2025 coming into effect on June 28, 2025 (Wholegrain Digital)
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