Retailer SparkFun Electronics last month said it would no longer do business with electronics kit-maker Adafruit Industries, citing violations of SparkFun's Code of Conduct during online interactions.
Adafruit says it's being punished for demanding an end to online harassment attributed to SparkFun's founder and a former employee.
The tech at the center of the dispute are Teensy development boards, which Adafruit obtains through SparkFun.
SparkFun CEO Glenn Samala, in a letter dated December 8, 2025, said the company would do its best to ship outstanding orders until January 15, 2026, after which it will cancel any remaining unfulfilled orders.
According to Phillip Torrone, managing director of Adafruit, writing in a YCombinator forum, "This happened after I sent an email reporting the founder, Nate [Seidle], for multiple harassing actions directed at [Adafruit founder Limor Fried], including behavior by him and a former employee. Instead of addressing that, they decided to kill the messenger, me, and also cut us off from Teensy." Torrone and Fried are married.
In response, Adafruit will now focus on developing an open alternative to the Teensy boards, possibly named "Freensy."
Torrone went on to accuse Seidle of trying to damage Adafruit by scraping the website and "now potentially not paying royalties owed after more than a decade of consistent payments."
In a January 7, 2026, forum post, Torrone explained that in July 2025, "we told SparkFun they needed to get their house in order. For years, SparkFun's leadership ignored specific behavior from leadership (and employees, now former) ... they had created and promoted hate sites, photoshopped images, and harassment targeting Limor, me, and others at Adafruit. This was done on company time, shared, promoted. This was reported to them. It was documented and ignored."
The post goes on to say that several months later, a particular individual at SparkFun resurfaced and promoted the material again. Adafruit again asked SparkFun to deal with the situation. Instead, Sparkfun ended its reseller relationship with Adafruit.
Torrone told The Register by email, "This is a long history, and we just had a kid, I am tired of dealing with Nate. Nate's wife Alicia runs OSHWA, [The Open Source Hardware Association], and when I reported conflict of interests for that, Nate does things to us it seems (that relationship is not publicly disclosed)."
Image of Limor Fried and infant, at work designing open source hardware - Click to enlarge
In his email, Torrone explained that a series of conflicts had soured Adafruit's relationship with SparkFun. He pointed to website interference that occurred when the company was just starting out, alleging that it caused significant damage to the young company.
"Aggressive automated access originating from SparkFun infrastructure took our site offline and caused measurable revenue loss," Torrone said. "We blocked the relevant IP range as a result. Afterward, SparkFun contacted us requesting restored access so they could continue using our guides. Nate emailed Limor a non-apology."
Torrone also claimed that Sparkfun had published source code from Fried's work multiple times without attribution or license details. "When raised, we typically contacted Nate, and the material would later be modified," he said. "The problem persists, but auditing every library retroactively is not practical given volume and age."
As far as royalties go, Torrone explained that SparkFun had used a name that Adafruit had trademarked. "This matter was resolved, and to this day we receive compensation for those sales," he said. "I am hesitant to share detailed settlement specifics at this stage, particularly given uncertainty about whether SparkFun intends to continue honoring that arrangement."
The Register asked Samala and Seidle to elaborate on what Adafruit personnel allegedly said to warrant the termination of relations, and to comment on Torrone's characterization of events.
Samala pointed to SparkFun's official response, adding: "As noted, this decision was made after much consideration and we wish Adafruit the very best in their future endeavors." Seidle didn't comment.
The Register asked Samala whether he would provide any of the alleged harassing material, whether he believed that material would fall under the company's Code of Conduct, and whether he'd care to respond to Torrone's claims. We've not heard more. We'll update this article if we do.®
Source: The register