Alistair Fairweather

As corporate feuds go, Automattic vs WP Engine is about as obscure as it gets, and about as vicious. Few non-techies know that a system called WordPress powers nearly half of all websites on the internet (roughly 43% at last count) and even fewer know, or care, what Automattic or WP Engine do. Yet the feud may lead to the disintegration of a global software ecosystem worth tens of billions of dollars.

Many people still think of WordPress as "that blogging thing" but, since its launch in 2003, it has evolved into a flexible and powerful content management system. Hundreds of millions of websites and online shops use WordPress to produce their sites. As its usage has expanded, hundreds of thousands of businesses employing millions of people have sprung up around the software.