Not to be confused with Automatic.
Automattic Inc.
Private
FounderMatt Mullenweg
Key peopleMatt Mullenweg (CEO, president)
Industry
  • Internet
  • Web development
  • Software
Products
Num employees (2025[1])1,479
Foundation2005 (age 21), in the United States
LocationSan Francisco, California, US
Homepageautomattic.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 other brands and products include 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]

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, the WordPress open-source software was powering 28 million websites, or 40 percent of all websites on the Internet that used a content management system (CMS).[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

Main article: WP Engine #WordPress 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]

References

  1. ^ "About Us". Automattic. July 23, 2005. Archived 2024-12-11 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-08.
  2. ^ Morrison, Chris (2021-10-19). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. Archived 2024-09-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
  3. ^ Mullenweg, Matt (2010-09-09). "A New Home for the WordPress Trademark". ma.tt. Archived 2024-12-09 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  4. ^ Forrester, Mark (2015-05-19). "WooThemes Joins Automattic". The WooCommerce Blog. Archived 2024-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  5. ^ "Automattic, Parent Company of WordPress.com, Acquires Atavist Publishing Platform and Award-Winning Magazine". PR Newswire. 2018-06-21. Archived 2024-10-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  6. ^ Gooding, Sarah (2019-08-13). "Automattic Acquires Tumblr, Plans to Rebuild the Backend Powered by WordPress". wptavern.com. Archived 2024-12-04 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-12.
  7. ^ Mullenweg, Matt (2021-02-08). "Parse.ly & Automattic". ma.tt. Archived 2024-10-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  8. ^ Perez, Sarah (2021-06-14). "WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One". TechCrunch. Archived 2024-12-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  9. ^ Budelli, Eli (2021-07-16). "Popular Podcast App Pocket Casts Joins Automattic". WordPress.com. Archived 2024-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-12.
  10. ^ Pierce, David (2024-04-09). "Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging". The Verge. Archived 2024-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  11. ^ Sawers, Paul (September 22, 2024). "Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a 'cancer to WordPress' and urges community to switch providers". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  12. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  13. ^ Farr, Christina (January 13, 2014). "WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg to take over Automattic as CEO". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  14. ^ Burns, Matt (August 19, 2013). "GitHub Co-Founder And CEO Tom Preston-Werner To Speak At Disrupt SF". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 21, 2025.
  15. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  16. ^ Brodkin, Jon (October 3, 2024). "Automattic demanded web host pay $32M annually for using WordPress trademark". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  17. ^ Rao, Leena (June 25, 2010). "Automattic Buys Up Thing Labs' Plinky To Help Bloggers Overcome Writer's Block". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 21, 2025.
  18. ^ Kelly, Meghan (September 25, 2013). "WordPress to get collaborative post editing after CloudUp acquisition". VentureBeat. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  19. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (July 15, 2013). "Automattic Acqui-Hires Lean Domain Search To Improve Its Domain Registration Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  20. ^ Kolodny, Lora (May 5, 2014). "Automattic Valued at $1.16 Billion, Says It Doesn't Need IPO". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
  21. ^ Weber, Harrison (November 23, 2015). "Automattic revamps and open-sources WordPress.com". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  22. ^ Scott Berkun (10 September 2013). The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-66063-8.
  23. ^ "About Knock Knock, WHOIS There". .blog. 2016-04-13. Archived 2024-09-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  24. ^ Staley, Oliver (2017-06-12). "Wordpress's owner is closing its San Francisco office because its employees never show up". Quartz. Archived 2024-11-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  25. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (June 21, 2018). "WordPress.com Owner Buys Atavist, Maker of Subscription-Offering Publishing Software". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  26. ^ Sawers, Paul (September 19, 2019). "WordPress.com parent Automattic raises $300 million from Salesforce at a $3 billion valuation". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  27. ^ Sandler, Rachel (August 12, 2019). "Verizon To Sell Tumblr To Wordpress Owner". Forbes. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  28. ^ 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. Archived 2023-08-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  29. ^ Southern, Matt (January 14, 2019). "Google is Partnering With WordPress to Develop a News Publishing Platform". Search Engine Journal. Archived January 17, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  30. ^ "Google Partners Automattic, WordPress to Create 'Newspack' Publishing Platform for Local News Publishers". Gadgets 360. Indo-Asian News Service. January 15, 2019. Archived March 7, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  31. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  32. ^ Sawers, Paul (August 6, 2020). "Automattic launches P2, a WordPress-powered collaboration tool for remote teams". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  33. ^ Shah, Agam (March 12, 2020). "Working Remotely Requires Cultural Change, Executives Say". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  34. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "Can social and e-commerce transform the future of the open web?". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  35. ^ Morrison, Chris (October 19, 2021). "There’s nothing Automattic about balancing commercial growth with an open source developer community". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  36. ^ Perez, Sarah (June 14, 2021). "WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  37. ^ Sawers, Paul (August 30, 2021). "Automattic acqui-hires the team behind Frontity, a React framework for WordPress". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  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". The Verge. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
  39. ^ Prang, Allison (February 8, 2021). "WordPress VIP Buying Content Analytics Firm Parse.ly". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  40. ^ Mehta, Ivan (June 7, 2023). "Automattic launches an AI writing assistant for WordPress". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  41. ^ Pierce, David (October 24, 2023). "Automattic is acquiring Texts and betting big on the future of messaging". The Verge. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  42. ^ Pierce, David (April 9, 2024). "Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging". The Verge. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  43. ^ Perez, Sarah (November 21, 2024). "WordPress.com owner Automattic snaps up grammar checker Harper". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  44. ^ Mehta, Ivan (December 9, 2024). "Automattic acquires WPAI, a startup that makes AI products for WordPress". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  45. ^ Cai, Kendrick & Konrad, Alex (eds.) (August 6, 2024). "Forbes Cloud 100 No. 71: Automattic". Forbes. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  46. ^ Cole, Samantha (2024-02-27). "Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users' Data to Train AI Tools". 404 Media. Archived 2024-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  47. ^ Perez, Sarah (2025-04-02). "WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
  48. ^ Mehta, Ivan (2024-09-26). "The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained". TechCrunch. Archived 2024-12-11 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  49. ^ Roth, Emma (2024-10-04). "WordPress co-founder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with him". The Verge. Archived 2024-11-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  50. ^ Cole, Samantha (2024-10-17). "Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos". 404 Media. Archived 2024-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-10-18.
  51. ^ "Board of Directors". Automattic. 2018-09-25. Archived 2024-12-06 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-12.