Tech
Automattic planned to target 10 competitors with royalty fees, WP Engine claims in new filing
Web hosting company WP Engine has filed an amended complaint with brow-raising new allegations in its ongoing legal battle with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic (WordPress.com’s parent company). The company now claims that Mullenweg intended to target 10 different hosting companies with royalty payments for their use of the WordPress trademark and tried to get payment processor Stripe to cancel its contract with WP Engine.
At the heart of the dispute, Mullenweg believes WP Engine is profiting from the open source WordPress project without contributing back to the community, and demanded the hosting company pay 8% of its monthly gross revenues as a royalty fee for using the WordPress brand.
The suit, originally filed by WP Engine in October 2024, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of defamation and abuse of power. Automattic filed its counterclaims last year, alleging that the hosting company has been abusing the WordPress trademark and engaging in deceptive marketing practices.
In this latest filing, WP Engine has amended its complaint for the third time after gaining access to information that was uncovered during the discovery process. The information, now unredacted, had been previously sealed at Automattic’s request.
Notably, one of the new claims accuses Automattic of allegedly planning to target 10 other competitors with royalty claims similar to those aimed at WP Engine.
The complaint also states that Newfold, a company whose portfolio includes hosting providers like Bluehost and HostGator, among others, is already paying Automattic for use of its trademarks and that Automattic is in conversations with others. (Names of the other hosts were redacted in the complaint, which referenced email conversations between those companies and Mullenweg.)
WP Engine is also alleging that Mullenweg reached out to a Stripe executive via email to pressure the company to cancel WP Engine’s contract. This occurred after WP Engine had filed its lawsuit against Automattic, the complaint states.
The filing also challenges the 8% rate for the royalty payments as being somewhat arbitrary. Referencing Mullenweg’s comments at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, WP Engine claims that the Automattic founder essentially came up with the rate because it was what he thought WP Engine “could afford to pay.”
At Disrupt, Mullenweg had responded to a question about how he settled on the 8% fee by saying it was based on a “business analysis.”
“If you estimate that would be about $32 million — they still would have been free cash-flow positive, and based on our estimates, and the negotiations over the past 18 months, we felt like that was a fair amount,” he said at the event.
Other new claims in the filing point to aggressive language Mullenweg allegedly used against WP Engine, like threats that if the web hosting provider didn’t comply, he would start stealing its customers. “If they don’t take the carrot, we’ll give them the stick,” was one of the quotes cited from internal correspondence at Automattic, for instance.
The complaint also includes allegations that Mullenweg used the term “nuclear war” to describe his approach to WP Engine’s defiance.
Asked about the new filing, Automattic shared the following statement with TechCrunch: “There is nothing new here. This is the same narrative WP Engine has been pushing for over a year, and the Court has already dismissed many of its central claims. The lawsuit is going nowhere. This latest filing simply repackages the same tired allegations in an effort to keep the story alive. WP Engine is trying to recast robust competition as something nefarious. We are confident the courts will continue to reject that theory.”
Updated after publication with Automattic’s statement.
Tech
Roku to launch streaming bundles as part of its efforts to continue growing its profitability
Roku shared its fourth-quarter earnings for 2025 this week, as well as some exciting plans in the pipeline. The company is rolling out new streaming bundles, expanding its $3 subscription service, Howdy, to more platforms, and partnering with more premium streaming services following the successful addition of HBO Max.
Launching bundles in 2026 is a smart move, as it could attract more viewers looking for enticing deals amid rising subscription prices. Many streaming platforms have been increasing their rates recently, and Roku aims to appeal to cost-conscious consumers. The positive impact of HBO Max on Roku’s premium subscriptions has encouraged the company to continue this strategy by adding more top-tier partners, which is likely to drive growth going forward.
Additionally, Roku launched its ad-free subscription streaming service, Howdy, last year and plans to expand its availability beyond the Roku platform. While specific details remain undisclosed, Roku CEO Anthony Wood stated at CES last month that the goal is to distribute Howdy widely, saying, “We want to distribute it everywhere.”
Other highlights include Roku users streaming 145.6 billion hours of video in 2025, marking a 15% increase from 2024. The company is also nearing the milestone of 100 million streaming households, though it has decided to report this figure less frequently.
Financially, Roku delivered an impressive quarter, posting net income of $80.5 million, a rebound from a $35.5 million loss in the same period last year. Total revenue for Q4 2025 reached $1.4 billion, representing a 16% year-over-year increase.
Looking ahead, Roku is optimistic, projecting total net revenue of $5.5 billion and gross profit of $2.4 billion.
“In 2023, our priority was to rightsize our cost structure and reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in 2024, and we achieved that goal a full year ahead of schedule,” Wood told investors during the call yesterday afternoon. “Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we are confident in our ability to sustain double-digit platform revenue growth while continuing to grow profitability.”
Tech
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads mocking AI with ads helped push Claude’s app into the top 10
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads — which feature darkly comedic scenarios of people seeking advice from chatbots, only to be steered to “cougar” dating sites and height-boosting insoles — have been paying off. In the days since, Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude has climbed from No. 41 on the U.S. App Store to become a top 10 app. As of Friday, Claude sits at No. 7 — its highest rank to date — suggesting its “no ads” pitch resonates strongly with users.
According to new data from market intelligence provider Appfigures, Claude’s U.S. downloads across both iOS and Android totaled an estimated 148,000 from Sunday through Tuesday — the most recent data available. That’s a 32% increase from the preceding three days, Thursday through Saturday, where downloads totaled approximately 112,000.
Claude’s daily average number of downloads from Sunday through Tuesday was 49,200, up 32% from the usual Sunday through Tuesday average of 37,400 per day.
The numbers suggest that Anthropic’s Super Bowl commercials, combined with Anthropic’s recent release of its new Opus 4.6 model, worked to drive attention to Claude’s app and its key differentiator from ChatGPT. The latter rolled out ads to free users this week, just as Anthropic’s ads had warned.
As a result, Claude’s app is gaining more attention than it did when it first debuted on mobile.
The consumer-focused AI app arrived on iOS in May 2024 to a fairly tepid reception. ChatGPT had beaten it to market on mobile devices and had grown to nearly half a million installs in its first five days. By comparison, Claude had only pulled in 157,000 total global downloads within its first week and didn’t reach a rank higher than No. 55 on the U.S. App Store.
Globally, Claude saw some gains this past week, too. Overall worldwide downloads of Claude across both the App Store and Google Play grew 15% from Sunday to Tuesday versus last Thursday to Saturday. However, this was less than half the gains seen in the U.S., Appfigures noted.
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India partners with Alibaba.com for export push despite past China tech bans
India’s government has partnered with China’s Alibaba.com on an export-focused program aimed at helping startups and small businesses reach overseas buyers. The move highlights New Delhi’s selective engagement with Chinese-linked tech platforms years after it imposed sweeping bans on consumer apps and games.
This week, the Indian government’s Startup India initiative announced the collaboration with Alibaba.com to identify and support Indian startups that can help onboard and scale Indian exporters on the group’s global B2B platform. The program offers commissions and technical support to those startups to assist small manufacturers and traders in reaching overseas markets.
The new partnership arrives after years of strained India–China relations. New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese-linked apps in 2020 following a deadly border clash, including major platforms such as TikTok, PUBG Mobile, and AliExpress, an e-commerce app operated by Alibaba Group. Those restrictions remain in place, making the Indian government’s public collaboration with Alibaba’s export-focused platform a carefully circumscribed form of engagement rather than a broader policy reset.
India’s export ambitions are closely tied to its small businesses and the platforms they use to reach overseas markets. Micro, small, and medium enterprises account for nearly half of the country’s exports and about 31% of GDP, according to the Indian government’s latest Economic Survey, underlining why New Delhi has focused on expanding digital market access for smaller firms through global B2B channels, including Alibaba.com.
Alibaba.com’s B2B platform connects more than 50 million active buyers across over 200 countries and regions, said Rocky Lu, head of India business at the company.
“Alibaba.com has been active in India for over two decades, and we remain dedicated to our core mission of empowering MSMEs to scale their businesses globally,” Lu told TechCrunch. “Our focus continues to be on leveraging our digital infrastructure to help ‘Made in India’ products reach an international audience through digital transformation.”
Lu did not confirm whether the Startup India initiative marks Alibaba.com’s first direct partnership with India’s federal government since 2020. He said, however, that the company has “maintained a consistent cadence of engagement with various government and semi-government bodies integral to the Indian export ecosystem,” including through digital training programs for MSMEs and collaborations with export promotion councils.
The partnership reflects India’s differentiated approach toward China, maintaining restrictions in strategic and security-sensitive sectors while allowing economic engagement where there is clear benefit, said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of the New Delhi-based public policy think tank The Dialogue.
“Going forward, regulatory clarity will be important,” Rizvi told TechCrunch. “Predictable policy environments will help ensure that startups feel confident participating in such initiatives.”
The Indian government seems to be drawing a distinction between export-focused platforms and consumer-facing Chinese apps, said George Chen, partner and co-chair of the digital practice at The Asia Group, a Washington-based consultancy that advises companies on policy and geopolitical risks across Asia. Chen, who previously served as a regional public policy director at Meta, said New Delhi sees value in Alibaba’s role in supporting B2B exports, particularly given the platform’s reach in markets such as Africa, which could help Indian exporters diversify their global sales.
India appears to be drawing lessons from China’s approach to digital platforms, Chen told TechCrunch.
“China bans foreign apps like Facebook and Instagram for Chinese individual users but still allows Facebook and Google to do business with Chinese companies, especially exporters who rely on those platforms to sell products abroad,” Chen said.
The Startup India collaboration follows other recent steps by Alibaba.com to expand export-focused services in India. In June 2025, the company launched its Trade Assurance program in the country, aimed at helping Indian small and medium-sized exporters manage risks in cross-border transactions through payment protection and dispute-resolution tools.
The developments also come as India and China show tentative signs of improved engagement in multilateral technology forums, with Chinese representatives expected to attend the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi next week. Indian officials, however, have not indicated any change to restrictions on Chinese consumer technology platforms.
The Indian commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comments.
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