Automattic Explained

Automattic Inc.
Type:	Private
Founder:	Matt Mullenweg
Key People:	Matt Mullenweg (CEO, president)
Num Employees:	1,934 (January 2024)^[1]
Foundation:	, in the United States
Location:	San Francisco, California, US
Homepage:	automattic.com
Module:	Child: yes

Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company which was founded in August 2005 and is most notable for WordPress.com (a freemium blogging service), as well as its contributions to WordPress (an open source blogging software). The company's name is a play on founder Matt Mullenweg's first name and the word "automatic".^[2]

History

On January 11, 2006, it was announced that Toni Schneider would be leaving Yahoo! to become CEO of Automattic. He was previously CEO of Oddpost before it was acquired by Yahoo!, where he had continued as a senior executive.^{[3] [4]}

In April 2006, Automattic's Regulation D filing showed it had raised approximately $1.1 million in funding,^[5] which Mullenweg addressed in his blog. Investors were Polaris Ventures, True Ventures, and Radar Partners.

On September 9, 2010, Automattic gave the WordPress trademark and control over bbPress and BuddyPress to the WordPress Foundation.^[6]

Its 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.^[7]

On November 21, 2016, Automattic, via a subsidiary company (Knock Knock, WHOIS There) managed the launch and later development of the .blog gTLD, thus becoming a domain registrar.^[8]

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.^[9]

In August 2019, Automattic closed a deal with Verizon Media to acquire Tumblr.^[10] Mullenweg stated that he saw Tumblr as an "on-ramp" for WordPress adoption.^[11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

In February 2024, it was reported that the company would begin selling user data from Tumblr and WordPress.com to Midjourney and OpenAI.^[14]

Products

Some notable Automattic brands and products include:

• WordPress.com – blog host, created in 2005
• Akismet – anti-comment spam system capable of integration with many blogging platforms and forums, created in 2005
• Gravatar – globally recognized avatars, acquired 2007^[15]
• BuddyPress – social networking plugin suite, acquired September 2008 and given to the WordPress Foundation in 2010
• IntenseDebate – acquired September 2008^[16]
• PollDaddy – acquired November 2008^[17]
• Simplenote – note-taking and sync service, acquired in 2013
• Longreads – acquired in 2014^[18]
• WooCommerce – eCommerce plugin for WordPress with a marketplace for extensions, acquired in 2015^[19]
• Atavist – multimedia publishing platform and magazine, acquired in 2018^[20]
• Prospress – WooCommerce extension developer, acquired in May 2019^{[21] [22]}
• Jetpack CRM – acquired in August 2019, renamed from "Zero BS CRM"^{[23] [24]}
• Tumblr – Microblogging platform, acquired in 2019^[25]
• Parse.ly – web analytics tools, acquired in February 2021^[26]
• Day One – personal journaling app, acquired in June 2021^[27]
• Pocket Casts – podcast client, acquired in July 2021^[28]
• Texts.com – messaging bridging app, acquired in October 2023^[29]
• Beeper – messaging bridging app based on Matrix, acquired in April 2024^[30]

Notes and References

1. Web site: 23 July 2005. About Us . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240201024818/https://automattic.com/about/ . 2024-02-01 . 2024-02-01 . Automattic . en.
2. Web site: Morrison . Chris . How doing everything wrong turned Automattic into a multibillion dollar media powerhouse . TechCrunch . 31 March 2024 . 19 October 2021.
3. Web site: Yahoo Exec Exits For Automattic CEO Gig. Om. Malik. 11 January 2006. gigaom.com. 24 January 2018. 20 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170920191024/https://gigaom.com/2006/01/11/automattic-wordpress/. dead.
4. http://toni.schneidersf.com/2006/01/11/moving-on-from-yahoo-automattic/ Moving On From Yahoo -> Automattic
5. Web site: EDGAR Search Results. www.sec.gov. 24 January 2018.
6. Web site: A New Home for the WordPress Trademark. 9 September 2010. 24 January 2018.
7. Book: Scott Berkun. The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. 10 September 2013. Wiley. 978-1-118-66063-8.
8. Web site: About Knock Knock, WHOIS There. 13 April 2016. 24 January 2018.
9. Web site: Wordpress's owner is closing its San Francisco office because its employees never show up. Staley. Oliver. 2017-06-12. Quartz. en. 2019-10-20.
10. Web site: Radulovic . Petrana . August 12, 2019 . Tumblr sold off yet again, adult content bans to be relaxed, but are being discussed. . August 12, 2019 . Polygon.
11. Web site: Milano . Matt . 2023-08-23 . Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, Sees Tumblr As a Gateway Product . 2024-02-29 . WebProNews . en.
12. Web site: 19 September 2019 . Automattic raises $300 million at $3 billion valuation from Salesforce Ventures . 2020-04-23 . TechCrunch . en-US.
13. Web site: Matt Mullenweg . August 16, 2021 . Funding, Buyback, and Hiring .
14. Web site: Cole . Samantha . 2024-02-27 . Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools . 2024-02-28 . 404 Media . en.
15. Web site: 2007-10-18 . Automattic Acquires Gravatar . 2023-09-07 . TechCrunch . en-US.
16. Web site: Automattic Acquires IntenseDebate. 23 September 2008. 24 January 2018.
17. Web site: Automattic Acquires PollDaddy!. 15 October 2008. 24 January 2018.
18. Web site: Longreads Is Joining the Automattic Family. 9 April 2014. 24 January 2018.
19. Web site: WooThemes Joins Automattic. 19 May 2015. 24 January 2018.
20. News: Automattic, Parent Company of WordPress.com, Acquires Atavist Publishing Platform and Award-Winning Magazine. June 21, 2018. PR Newswire. June 22, 2018.
21. Web site: Shepherd . Brent . May 22, 2019 . A Final Prospress Post… . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190524041827/https://prospress.com/final-prospress-post/ . 2019-05-24 . September 22, 2021 . Prospress Blog.
22. News: Dillet . Romain . May 23, 2019 . Automattic acquires subscription payment company Prospress . September 22, 2021 . TechCrunch.
23. Zero BS CRM acquired . August 16, 2019.
24. News: 2020-07-20 . Introducing Jetpack CRM: Grow Your Business Through Better Contact Management . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200721034933/https://jetpack.com/2020/07/20/introducing-jetpack-crm/ . 2020-07-21 . 2021-08-17 . Jetpack . Automattic.
25. Web site: Automattic Acquires Tumblr, Plans to Rebuild the Backend Powered by WordPress. August 13, 2019.
26. Web site: 2021-02-08 . Parse.ly & Automattic . 2021-02-09 . Matt Mullenweg . en-US.
27. Web site: WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One . 2021-06-14 . TechCrunch . en-US.
28. Web site: 16 July 2021 . Popular Podcast App Pocket Casts Joins Automattic – WordPress.com News .
29. Web site: Pierce . David . 2023-10-24 . Automattic is acquiring Texts and betting big on the future of messaging . 2023-10-24 . The Verge . en.
30. Web site: Pierce . David . 2024-04-09 . Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging . 2024-04-09 . The Verge . en.