SparkFun Terminates Adafruit Partnership Amid Harassment Allegations

SparkFun Electronics has formally terminated its business partnership with Adafruit Industries, citing violations of SparkFun's Code of Conduct during online communications. The decision, communicated via CEO Glenn Samala's December 8, 2025 letter, establishes January 15, 2026 as the cutoff date for order fulfillment, after which all pending orders will be canceled.

The dispute centers on allegations by Adafruit's leadership that SparkFun failed to address harassment targeting Adafruit founder Limor Fried and Managing Director Phillip Torrone. According to Torrone, SparkFun founder Nate Seidle and a former employee engaged in "multiple harassing actions" including creating hate sites, photoshopped images, and targeted harassment campaigns conducted during company time. Adafruit first reported these concerns to SparkFun leadership in July 2025.

Torrone characterizes SparkFun's termination of their Teensy microcontroller board supply agreement as retaliation for raising harassment concerns. "Instead of addressing that, they decided to kill the messenger," Torrone stated in a YCombinator forum post. This supply chain disruption directly impacts Adafruit's access to Teensy development boards, a popular hardware platform in the maker community.

In response, Adafruit has initiated development of an open-source alternative hardware platform tentatively named "Freensy," positioning it as an ethical alternative for the open-source hardware ecosystem. Concurrently, Torrone alleges SparkFun may withhold royalty payments owed to Adafruit under a longstanding trademark settlement agreement.

The conflict extends beyond recent harassment allegations. Torrone cites historical grievances including:

• Aggressive web scraping by SparkFun infrastructure that allegedly caused significant revenue losses
• Repeated publication of Fried's source code without proper attribution
• Unresolved concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving Seidle's wife Alicia Gibb, Executive Director of the Open Source Hardware Association

SparkFun's official response maintains neutrality: "This decision was made after much consideration and we wish Adafruit the very best in their future endeavors." Neither Samala nor Seidle responded substantively to allegations regarding harassment materials or royalty payment intentions.

The dispute highlights corporate governance challenges in the open-source hardware sector, particularly regarding:

1. Enforcement of Codes of Conduct against leadership
2. Supply chain vulnerability when business relationships fracture
3. Intellectual property protection in collaborative ecosystems

Adafruit's planned Freensy hardware development represents a strategic shift toward supply chain independence, with Torrone noting the company's need to prioritize stability: "We just had a kid, I am tired of dealing with Nate." The situation underscores how unresolved interpersonal conflicts can escalate to significant business disruptions in the hardware technology sector.