This looks very strange:
"Automattic will have full audit rights."
"WordPress.org and Automattic will have full audit rights, including access to employee records and time-tracking."
"Automattic will have full audit rights."
"WordPress.org and Automattic will have full audit rights, including access to employee records and time-tracking."
The choice is, "some money and we'll look the other way; or open all your books, and donate 8% of your workforce to wordpress"
Could automattic know the exact numbers in a different way, since WPEngine is not a public company?
I get that regulatory bodies should have access under certain conditions, but letting a competitor do this? Makes zero sense.
You can't just give out confidential employee records to third parties.
Point is that Automattic would have full access to this as well.
Attempts to go fishing in such records would be pretty unlikely to succeed; it'd be an uneforcable request contrary to public policy, with no relevance to such an audit. It would be correctly and easily fought.