Four hours after posting it late on Oct 16th, a nine-month severance package was floated to anybody who quit immediately. It was just days since 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg's offer of a six-month severance package for anyone who wanted out.

In a Slack message that was seen by TechCrunch, Mullenweg posted that people who accepted the offer would lose access not only to Automattic, but to WordPress.org as well. Effectively, this would mean that people leaving wouldn't be able to contribute to the open source project-at least under their existing ID. This would also mean they'd be effectively banned from the WordPress community. News of the deal was earlier reported by 404 Media.

In addition to this, Mullen is also the CEO of Automattic and owns and controls the open source WordPress.org site.
Mullenweg took only four hours notice and told people who would like to accept the offer should DM him, "I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer."

"You don't have to say any reason or anything else. I will reply 'Thank you.' Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep your office stuff and work laptop. You will lose access to Automattic and Worg," Mullenweg said.

He explained, "I guess some people were sad they missed the last window," and so presented this new short window.

Automattic did not respond to the story at time of publication. It's unclear whether any employees accepted the new offer. The headcount of the company stands currently at 1,731, according to its website; an hour ago, it stood at 1,732.

The first batch left for those people who did not empathize with his vision of the fight that Automattic has been having with hosting provider WP Engine. Among those leaving the company were some of the top people, including the head of WordPress.com, the commercial arm of Automattic, Daniel Bachhuber; head of programs and contributor experience Naoko Takano; principal architect for AI, Daniel Walmsley; and executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy of WordPress.org.

Nearly a month ago, the fight started when Mullenweg declared WP Engine "a cancer to WordPress," and now the independent firm was accused of not doing enough to contribute to the open source WordPress project. Recently the battle has included cease-and-desist letters, Automattic accusing WP Engine of violating trademarks, a lawsuit by WP Engine, and WordPress.org blocking WP Engine's access, then taking over a plug-in it had been maintaining.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Automattic has been gearing up to defend its trademarks involving "nice and not nice" lawyers, according to an internal post published earlier this year by the company's then-chief legal officer.