Automattic

Automattic Inc.
Private
Industry Internet
Founded August 2005
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Key people
 Matt Mullenweg (Founder, CEO, president)
Products WordPress.com
Akismet
Gravatar
Simplenote
WooCommerce
Number of employees
 717
Website automattic.com

Automattic Inc. is a web development corporation founded in August 2005. It is most notable for WordPress.com (a free blogging service), as well as its contributions to WordPress (open source blogging software). The company's name is a play on its founder's first name, Matt.

Automattic raised US$317.3 million in five funding rounds. In the last round, on May 2014, the company was valued at US$1.16 billion.[1]

The company has 717 employees.[2] Its culture was the topic of a participative journalism project by Scott Berkun, entitled The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work.[3]

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.[4][5]

In April 2006, it was revealed, through a Regulation D filing, that Automattic raised approximately $1.1 million in funding,[6] which Mullenweg addressed in his blog. Investors were Polaris Ventures, True Ventures, Radar Partners, and CNET.

On September 23, 2008, Automattic announced acquiring IntenseDebate.[7] Two months later, on November 15, 2008, Automattic acquired PollDaddy.[8]

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

On May 19, 2015, Automattic announced the acquisition of WooThemes, including their flagship product WooCommerce.[10]

On November 21, 2016, Automattic, via a subsidiary company (Knock Knock, WHOS There) managed the launch and later development of the .blog gTLD, becoming domain registrars.[11]

On June 21, 2018, Automattic acquired Atavast and its magazine.[12]

Projects

Other projects include:

  • After the Deadline – online proofreading tool
  • Akismet – anti-comment spam system capable of integration with many blogging platforms and forums
  • bbPress – forum software
  • blo.gs – RSS feed aggregator
  • BuddyPress – social networking plugin suite
  • Cloudup – file sharing application
  • Ping-O-Matic – pinging service
  • GlotPress – collaborative translation tool
  • Gravatar – globally recognized avatars
  • IntenseDebate – a blog comment hosting service that was launched as a private beta in January 2007 by Co-Founders Jon Fox, Isaac Keyet, and Josh Morgan,[13] and launched as an open beta on October 30, 2007. On September 23, 2008, Automattic announced its acquisition of IntenseDebate's properties,[7] and returned to private beta until November of that year.In 2007, IntenseDebate was selected to be part of the first class of Techstars, a Boulder, Colorado based startup accelerator.
  • Longreads – journalism aggregator[14]
  • Mongoose ODM – elegant mongodb object modeling for node.js
  • PollDaddy – polls and survey tools
  • Poster – A blogging app for IOS
  • Simplenote – note-taking and sync service based on another Automattic project simperium.com
  • Scroll Kit – A code-free web design tool[15]
  • VaultPress – backup and security service for WordPress sites
  • VideoPress – hosted HD video for WordPress sites
  • WooCommerce – WordPress eCommerce

References

  1. ↑ Kara Swisher (May 5, 2014). "WordPress.com Parent Automattic Raises $160 Million, Valued at $1.16 Billion". Re/Code.
  2. ↑ "About Us". 31 July 2005. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  3. ↑ Scott Berkun (10 September 2013). The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-66063-8.
  4. ↑ Malik, Om (11 January 2006). "Yahoo Exec Exits For Automattic CEO Gig". gigaom.com. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  5. ↑ Moving On From Yahoo -> Automattic « Toni’s Garage Archived November 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ "EDGAR Search Results". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Automattic Acquires IntenseDebate". 23 September 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "Automattic Acquires PollDaddy!". 15 October 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "A New Home for the WordPress Trademark". 9 September 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "WooThemes Joins Automattic". 19 May 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "About Knock Knock, WHOIS There". 13 April 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  12. ↑ "Automattic, Parent Company of WordPress.com, Acquires Atavist Publishing Platform and Award-Winning Magazine". PR Newswire. June 21, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  13. ↑ Contributor. "Intense Debate Soups Up Your Blog Comments". Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  14. ↑ "Longreads Is Joining the Automattic Family". 9 April 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  15. ↑ "scroll kit". www.scrollkit.com. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
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