The future fate of the elementary OS distribution is in doubt due to a conflict between the founders of the project, who cannot divide among themselves the company that oversees the development and accumulates incoming funds.
The company was co-founded by two founders, Cassidy Blaede and Danielle ForΓ© (formerly Daniel ForΓ©), who worked on the project full-time, receiving funds from donations for downloading builds and providing technical support. Due to a decline in financial performance amid the coronavirus pandemic, funds received decreased and the company was forced to cut employee salaries by 5%. A meeting was planned to be held in February to further cut the budget. First of all, it was proposed to reduce the salaries of the owners.
Before the meeting, Cassidy Blade announced that he had accepted an offer to join another company. At the same time, he wished to retain his shares, remain among the owners of the company and continue to participate in decision-making. Daniela Fore did not agree with this position, since in her opinion, the project should be managed by those who are directly developing it. The co-owners discussed the possibility of dividing the company's assets so that the company would remain entirely in the hands of Daniela, and Cassidy would receive half of the funds remaining in the account ($26 thousand) for his share.
After starting to prepare documents for the transaction to transfer a stake in the company, Daniela received a letter from a lawyer representing Cassidy's interests, who proposed new conditions - transferring $30 thousand now, $70 thousand over 10 years and ownership of 5% of the shares. After pointing out that the initial agreements were completely different, the lawyer explained that these were preliminary discussions and Cassidy did not give final consent to those terms. The increase in the amount was explained by the desire to receive compensation in the event of a sale of the company in the future.
Daniela refused to accept the new conditions and considered the actions taken to be a betrayal on Cassidy's part. Daniela considers the initial agreements fair and is ready to take 26 thousand and leave, but she does not intend to take on obligations that could subsequently put her into debt. Cassidy replied that he did not agree with the first terms, which is why he brought in a lawyer. Daniela indicated that if an agreement to transfer management of the company into her hands fails, she is ready to leave the project and join another community. The fate of the project is now in question, since the situation cannot be resolved for about a month, and the remaining money in the company is spent mainly on paying salaries, and, probably, soon the co-owners will have nothing to share.
Source: opennet.ru