The future of the elementary OS distribution is in question due to a conflict between the project's founders, who are unable to divide the company overseeing the development and accumulating incoming funds.
The company was co-founded by two founders — Cassidy Blaede and Danielle Foré (formerly Daniel Foré), who worked on the project full-time, receiving funds from donations upon downloading builds and providing technical support. Due to declining financial performance amid the coronavirus pandemic, income decreased, forcing the company to cut employee salaries by 5%. A meeting was scheduled for February to consider further budget cuts, primarily proposing salary reductions for the owners.
Before the meeting, Cassidy Blaede announced that he accepted an offer to work for another company. He wished to retain his shares, remain among the company's owners, and continue participating in decision-making. Danielle Foré disagreed with this position, as she believed that those who directly develop the project should manage it. The co-owners discussed the possibility of dividing the company's assets so that it would remain entirely in Danielle's hands, while Cassidy would receive half of the remaining funds in the account ($26,000) for his share.
After starting the preparation of documents for the transaction to transfer shares in the company, Danielle received a letter from a lawyer representing Cassidy's interests, who proposed new terms — a payment of $30,000 now, $70,000 over 10 years, and ownership of 5% of the shares. After pointing out that the initial agreements were quite different, the lawyer explained that these were preliminary discussions and that Cassidy had not given final consent to those terms. The increase in the amount was explained as a desire for compensation in case of a future sale of the company.
Daniela refused to accept the new terms and considered the actions taken as a betrayal by Cassidy. She believes the original agreements were fair and is willing to take $26,000 and leave, but she is not willing to take on obligations that could lead her into debt. Cassidy responded that he disagreed with the initial conditions, which is why he involved a lawyer. Daniela pointed out that if they cannot agree on transferring management of the company into her hands, she is ready to leave the project and join another community. The fate of the project is now in question, as the situation has been unresolved for about a month, and the remaining funds in the company are primarily being used for payroll, which means that soon the co-owners may have nothing left to share.
Source: opennet.ru
