Automattic
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.
Automattic's brands and products includeWordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, BuddyPress, Simplenote, WooCommerce, Atavist, Tumblr, Parse.ly, Day One, Pocket Casts, and Beeper.
History
Matt Mullenweg co-founded the open-source blogging platform WordPress in 2003. Two years later, he founded Automattic to monetize the platform.
Initially the company developed commercial products related to WordPress, including WordPress.com for WordPress-managed hosting and the spam filtering service Akismet. Toni Schneider, a former executive at Yahoo, became chief executive officer (CEO) in 2006.
In April 2006, Automattic's Regulation D filing showed it had raised approximately $1.1 million in funding.
On September 9, 2010, Automattic gave the WordPress trademark and control over bbPress and BuddyPress to the WordPress Foundation.
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.
On November 21, 2016, Automattic managed the launch and development of the .blog gTLD.
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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.
In August 2019, Automattic closed a deal with Verizon Media to acquire Tumblr. In September of the same year, Automattic announced a Series D funding round of $300 million from Salesforce, increasing its valuation to US$3 billion.
Ending in February 2021, Automattic brought in US$288 million from a primary funding round. Subsequently, the company participated in a stock buyback, with the company valued at US$7.5 billion.
In February 2024, it was reported that the company would begin selling user data from Tumblr and WordPress.com to Midjourney and OpenAI.
On April 2, 2025, the company announced a restructuring that resulted in the layoff of 16% of its workforce, or 281 positions.
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. 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. The next month, Mullenweg made another offer, this time of nine months' salary.
Corporate affairs
As of December 2024[update], Automattic's board consisted of the following directors:
- 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
External links
Media related to Automattic at Wikimedia Commons