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Automattic

Topic: Company

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 8 min
Automattic Inc.
TypePrivate
Industry
  • Internet
  • Web Development
  • Software
Founded2005; 21 years ago (2005), in the United States
FounderMatt Mullenweg
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, US
Key people
Matt Mullenweg (CEO, president)
Products
Number of employees
1,479 (2025[1])
ASN
Websiteautomattic.com

Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005.[2]

Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, BuddyPress,[3] Simplenote, WooCommerce,[4] Atavist,[5] Tumblr,[6] Parse.ly,[7] Day One,[8] Pocket Casts,[9] and Beeper.[10]

History

Matt Mullenweg co-founded the open-source blogging platform WordPress in 2003. Two years later, he founded Automattic to monetize the platform.[11]

Initially the company developed commercial products related to WordPress, including WordPress.com for WordPress-managed hosting and the spam filtering service Akismet.[12] Toni Schneider, a former executive at Yahoo, became chief executive officer (CEO) in 2006.[12][13] Automattic acquired Gravatar in 2007, then IntenseDebate and PollDaddy in 2008.[14][15]

Automattic transferred the WordPress source code and trademarks to the WordPress Foundation in 2010 and it also acquired the prompt generator Plinky.[16][17] In 2011, the company created Jetpack, a WordPress extension.[15]

Automattic acquired Lean Domain Search and CloudUp in 2013.[18][19] In 2014, Automattic raised $160 million in a venture round, acquired Longreads, and Mullenweg became CEO.[20][12] Schneider remained as an adviser while Mullenweg led product development.[13] Automattic acquired WooCommerce and relaunched the hosted version of its content manager, WordPress.com, in 2015.[12][21] This version replaced PHP with JavaScript and simplified administrative design. Automattic also launched a WordPress application with Mac support.[21]

Automattic's remote working culture was the topic of a participative journalism project by Scott Berkun, resulting in the 2013 book The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work.[22]

On November 21, 2016, Automattic managed the launch and development of the .blog gTLD.[23]

The former office of Automattic at 140 Hawthorne Street in San Francisco in July 2017 (since closed)

In 2017, Automattic announced that it would close its San Francisco office, which had served as an optional co-working space for its employees, alongside similar spaces near Portland, Maine and in Cape Town, South Africa.[24]

Automattic acquired Atavist Magazine in 2018.[25] The following year, it raised $300 million in a Series D funding round led by Salesforce Ventures in 2019, giving it a $3 billion valuation. The 2019 round of funding brought the total amount raised by Automattic to more than $600 million since its founding.[26] Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic in August 2019 for approximately $3 million.[27][28] As part of the acquisition, Automattic retained approximately 200 Tumblr staffers.[28] The same year, Google and Automattic partnered to create Newspack, a publishing platform for local news organizations. Google, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Knight Foundation, and Civil Media invested $2.2 million in the project.[29][30]

The COVID-19 pandemic boosted Automattic's growth as more businesses moved online.[31] In August 2020, Automattic released P2, a collaboration platform with a blog-like interface, designed for asynchronous distributed teams.[32] That year, Automattic had approximately 1,200 employees.[33] By 2021, Automattic's valuation reached $7.5 billion. At the time, Wordpress hosted 28 million websites, or 40 percent of all websites on the Internet.[34][35] Automattic acquired the journaling app Day One and Frontity, a React framework for WordPress website development, and podcast streaming service Pocket Casts in July 2021.[36][37][38] The following year, it acquired Parse.ly in its largest deal to date.[39] The company launched the Jetpack AI Assistant for WordPress in 2023.[40]

Automattic acquired multiservice messaging apps Texts in 2023.[41] The company purchased messaging app Beeper, grammar checking tool Harper, and WordPress artificial intelligence plugin maker WPAI in 2024.[42][43][44] Automattic was included in the 2024 Forbes Cloud 100 list.[45] In February 2024, it was reported that the company would begin selling user data from Tumblr and WordPress.com to Midjourney and OpenAI.[46]

On April 2, 2025, the company announced a restructuring that resulted in the layoff of 16% of its workforce, or 281 positions.[47]

WP Engine dispute and lawsuit

Towards the end of September 2024, Automattic was involved in a controversy with WP Engine, in which Automattic claimed WP Engine used the WordPress trademark in a way that confused consumers. One of the main claims made is that WP Engine does not pay trademark royalties to the WordPress Foundation.[48] Over 8 percent of Automattic's staff resigned after CEO Matt Mullenweg offered $30,000 or six months' salary as severance to those who disagreed with his stance.[49] The next month, Mullenweg made another offer, this time of nine months' salary.[50]

Corporate affairs

As of December 2024, Automattic's board consisted of the following directors:[51]

  • Matt Mullenweg (founder and CEO of Automattic)
  • Phil Black (co-founder of True Ventures venture capital firm)
  • Toni Schneider (former CEO of Automattic, 2006–2014)
  • Ann E. Dunwoody (retired U.S. army general)
  • Susan Decker (former President of Yahoo! Inc.)

References

  1. ↑ "About Us" (in en). July 23, 2005. https://automattic.com/about/. 
  2. ↑ Morrison, Chris (2021-10-19). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-origin/. 
  3. ↑ Mullenweg, Matt (2010-09-09). "A New Home for the WordPress Trademark". http://ma.tt/2010/09/wordpress-trademark/. 
  4. ↑ Forrester, Mark (2015-05-19). "WooThemes Joins Automattic". https://woocommerce.com/posts/woothemes-joins-automattic/. 
  5. ↑ "Automattic, Parent Company of WordPress.com, Acquires Atavist Publishing Platform and Award-Winning Magazine". PR Newswire. 2018-06-21. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/automattic-parent-company-of-wordpresscom-acquires-atavist-publishing-platform-and-award-winning-magazine-300670176.html. 
  6. ↑ Gooding, Sarah (2019-08-13). "Automattic Acquires Tumblr, Plans to Rebuild the Backend Powered by WordPress". https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-tumblr-plans-to-rebuild-the-backend-powered-by-wordpress. 
  7. ↑ Mullenweg, Matt (2021-02-08). "Parse.ly & Automattic" (in en-US). https://ma.tt/2021/02/parse-ly-automattic/. 
  8. ↑ Perez, Sarah (2021-06-14). "WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/14/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-journaling-app-day-one/. 
  9. ↑ Budelli, Eli (2021-07-16). "Popular Podcast App Pocket Casts Joins Automattic". https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/07/16/popular-podcast-app-pocket-casts-joins-automattic/. 
  10. ↑ Pierce, David (2024-04-09). "Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/9/24124179/beeper-app-automattic-acquisition-matrix-messaging. 
  11. ↑ Sawers, Paul (September 22, 2024). "Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a 'cancer to WordPress' and urges community to switch providers". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/22/matt-mullenweg-calls-wp-engine-a-cancer-to-wordpress-and-urges-community-to-switch-providers/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-origin/. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Farr, Christina (January 13, 2014). "WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg to take over Automattic as CEO". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/business/wordpress-creator-matt-mullenweg-to-take-over-automattic-as-ceo/. 
  14. ↑ Burns, Matt (August 19, 2013). "GitHub Co-Founder And CEO Tom Preston-Werner To Speak At Disrupt SF". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/19/github-co-founder-and-ceo-tom-preston-werner-to-speak-at-disrupt-sf/. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-origin/. 
  16. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (October 3, 2024). "Automattic demanded web host pay $32M annually for using WordPress trademark". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/automattic-demanded-web-host-pay-32m-annually-for-using-wordpress-trademark/. 
  17. ↑ Rao, Leena (June 25, 2010). "Automattic Buys Up Thing Labs' Plinky To Help Bloggers Overcome Writer's Block". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2010/06/25/automattic-buys-up-thing-labs-plinky-to-help-bloggers-overcome-writers-block/. 
  18. ↑ Kelly, Meghan (September 25, 2013). "WordPress to get collaborative post editing after CloudUp acquisition". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/business/wordpress-to-get-collaborative-post-editing-after-cloudup-acquisition/. 
  19. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (July 15, 2013). "Automattic Acqui-Hires Lean Domain Search To Improve Its Domain Registration Service". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/15/automattic-acqui-hires-lean-domain-search-to-improve-its-domain-registration-service/. 
  20. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (May 5, 2014). "Automattic Valued at $1.16 Billion, Says It Doesn't Need IPO". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-VCDB-14502. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Weber, Harrison (November 23, 2015). "Automattic revamps and open-sources WordPress.com". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/mobile/automattic-revamps-and-open-sources-wordpress-com/. 
  22. ↑ Scott Berkun (10 September 2013). The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-66063-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=nU1KlwEACAAJ. 
  23. ↑ "About Knock Knock, WHOIS There". 2016-04-13. https://my.blog/about-knock-knock-whois-there/. 
  24. ↑ Staley, Oliver (2017-06-12). "Wordpress's owner is closing its San Francisco office because its employees never show up" (in en). https://qz.com/1002655/the-company-behind-wordpress-is-closing-its-gorgeous-san-francisco-office-because-its-employees-never-show-up/. 
  25. ↑ Mullin, Benjamin (June 21, 2018). "WordPress.com Owner Buys Atavist, Maker of Subscription-Offering Publishing Software". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wordpress-com-owner-buys-atavist-maker-of-subscription-offering-publishing-software-1529597700. 
  26. ↑ Sawers, Paul (September 19, 2019). "WordPress.com parent Automattic raises $300 million from Salesforce at a $3 billion valuation". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/business/wordpress-com-parent-automattic-raises-300-million-from-salesforce-at-a-3-billion-valuation/. 
  27. ↑ Sandler, Rachel (August 12, 2019). "Verizon To Sell Tumblr To Wordpress Owner". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/08/12/verizon-to-sell-tumblr-to-wordpress-owner/. 
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Siegel, Rachel (August 13, 2019). "Tumblr once sold for $1.1 billion. The owner of WordPress just bought the site for a fraction of that.". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/13/tumblr-once-sold-billion-owner-wordpress-just-bought-site-fraction-that/. 
  29. ↑ Southern, Matt (January 14, 2019). "Google is Partnering With WordPress to Develop a News Publishing Platform". Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-partnering-with-wordpress-to-develop-a-news-publishing-platform/286333/. 
  30. ↑ "Google Partners Automattic, WordPress to Create 'Newspack' Publishing Platform for Local News Publishers". Gadgets 360. Indo-Asian News Service. January 15, 2019. https://www.gadgets360.com/internet/news/google-partners-automattic-wordpress-to-create-newspack-publishing-platform-for-local-news-publisher-1977863. 
  31. ↑ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-origin/. 
  32. ↑ Sawers, Paul (August 6, 2020). "Automattic launches P2, a WordPress-powered collaboration tool for remote teams". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/business/automattic-launches-p2-a-wordpress-powered-collaboration-tool-for-remote-teams/. 
  33. ↑ Shah, Agam (March 12, 2020). "Working Remotely Requires Cultural Change, Executives Say". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/working-remotely-requires-cultural-change-executives-say-11584053615. 
  34. ↑ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "Can social and e-commerce transform the future of the open web?". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-acquisitions/. 
  35. ↑ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "There’s nothing Automattic about balancing commercial growth with an open source developer community". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/automattic-tc1-developers/. 
  36. ↑ Perez, Sarah (June 14, 2021). "WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One" (in en-US). TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/14/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-journaling-app-day-one/. 
  37. ↑ Sawers, Paul (August 30, 2021). "Automattic acqui-hires the team behind Frontity, a React framework for WordPress". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/apps/automattic-acqui-hires-the-team-behind-frontity-a-react-framework-for-wordpress/. 
  38. ↑ Carman, Ashley (July 16, 2021). "Automattic, owner of Tumblr and WordPress.com, buys podcast app Pocket Casts/A new home for the popular podcast app" (in en-US). The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/16/22580023/automattic-pocket-casts-podcast-app-tumble-wordpress. 
  39. ↑ Prang, Allison (February 8, 2021). "WordPress VIP Buying Content Analytics Firm Parse.ly". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wordpress-vip-buying-content-analytics-firm-parse-ly-11612788609. 
  40. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (June 7, 2023). "Automattic launches an AI writing assistant for WordPress". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/07/automattic-launches-an-ai-writing-assistant-for-wordpress/. 
  41. ↑ Pierce, David (October 24, 2023). "Automattic is acquiring Texts and betting big on the future of messaging". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/24/23928685/automattic-texts-acquisition-universal-messaging. 
  42. ↑ Pierce, David (April 9, 2024). "Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/9/24124179/beeper-app-automattic-acquisition-matrix-messaging. 
  43. ↑ Perez, Sarah (November 21, 2024). "WordPress.com owner Automattic snaps up grammar checker Harper". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/21/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-snaps-up-grammar-checker-harper/. 
  44. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (December 9, 2024). "Automattic acquires WPAI, a startup that makes AI products for WordPress". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/09/automattic-acquires-wpai-a-startup-that-creates-ai-solutions-for-wordpress/. 
  45. ↑ "Forbes Cloud 100 No. 71: Automattic". Forbes. August 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/companies/automattic/?list=cloud100. 
  46. ↑ Cole, Samantha (2024-02-27). "Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users' Data to Train AI Tools" (in en). https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/. 
  47. ↑ Perez, Sarah (2025-04-02). "WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/02/wordpress-maker-automattic-lays-off-16-of-staff/. 
  48. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (2024-09-26). "The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained" (in en). https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/26/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/. 
  49. ↑ Roth, Emma (2024-10-04). "WordPress co-founder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with him" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/4/24261931/wordpress-matt-mullenweg-automattic-employee-pay-package. 
  50. ↑ Cole, Samantha (2024-10-17). "Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos". https://www.404media.co/automattic-buyout-offer-wordpress-matt-mullenweg/. 
  51. ↑ "Board of Directors" (in en). 2018-09-25. https://automattic.com/board/. 

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