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]
In August 2019, Automattic closed a deal with Verizon Media to acquire Tumblr.[25] 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.[26]
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.[27]
In February 2024, it was reported that the company would begin selling user data from Tumblr and WordPress.com to Midjourney and OpenAI.[28]
On April 2, 2025, the company announced a restructuring that resulted in the layoff of 16% of its workforce, or 281 positions.[29]
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.[30] 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.[31] The next month, Mullenweg made another offer, this time of nine months' salary.[32]
Corporate affairs
As of December2024[update], Automattic's board consisted of the following directors:[33]
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)
↑ Forrester, Mark (May 19, 2015). "WooThemes Joins Automattic". The WooCommerce Blog. Archived from the original on November 29, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
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