Category: Automattic

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and a range of other online services, is reducing its workforce. The layoffs will impact 16% of staff across divisions, an Automattic blog post published Wednesday reveals. Ahead of the layoffs, Automattic’s website listed 1744 employees, which means north of 270 people may have lost their jobs. (Automattic…

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg talks succession — ‘I don’t want to pass it to a committee’

March 4, 2025

Calls for WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg to step down from his leadership role have increased in recent months amid his controversial fight and legal battle with hosting company WP Engine. Mullenweg not only intends to stay, he’s also thinking about how he plans to manage succession planning. He doesn’t want to pass…

Automattic-owned Beeper is releasing redesigned desktop and iOS apps

February 24, 2025

WordPress.com owner Automattic last year acquired the multi-service messaging app Beeper for $125 million and said it would merge it with Texts.com, an earlier acquisition in the same category. Now, Beeper is releasing the first set of redesigned apps for iOS and desktop in beta after the merger. In a blog post, Beeper said that…

Tumblr to join the fediverse after WordPress migration completes

February 11, 2025

Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out,…

Hackers are hijacking WordPress sites to push Windows and Mac malware

January 29, 2025

Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork

January 11, 2025

Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress.org community members, some of whom have been spearheading a push to create a new fork of the open source WordPress project. While community criticism of WordPress’s governance isn’t new, the latest brouhaha kicked off back in September when Mullenweg publicly chastised WP…

Automattic says it will reduce its contribution to WordPress core project to match WP Engine

January 10, 2025

It’s a new year, but drama in the WordPress community keeps going. Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, said that it would reduce its contribution to WordPress core, the open-source project that acts as the backbone of most of Automattic’s products and ensures the longevity of WordPress as a technology and community. Automattic CEO and…

Yoast CEO calls for a ‘federated’ approach to WordPress repository

December 23, 2024

Days after web hosting provider WP Engine won a preliminary injunction against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and rival hosting provider Automattic, Mullenweg announced that WordPress.org is taking a holiday break. WordPress.com — a site that provides access to WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other artifacts to the community — will take a break from providing free…

Pineapple on pizza is delicious — and if you disagree, you can’t log in to WordPress.org

December 17, 2024

There are few matters in life that divide a room more than the prudence of putting pineapple on pizza. But if you’re of the persuasion that tropical fruit has no place on a pie, you’ll have to swallow a bitter pill — if you want to access the WordPress.org developer portal and forum, at least.…

Category: Automattic

Automattic, Global Security News, Layoffs, TC, wordpress

WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff

April 2, 2025

Automattic, Enterprise, Global IT News, Global Security News, open source, wordpress