New Funding for Automattic

36 points by hornokplease 12 years ago | 17 comments

Can a VC or a money guy please explain why a company that is so critical to web valued less than Tumblr ?

I have no idea -- this is just a thought. Perhaps it's because Tumblr as a platform controls its entire user base while WordPress has an OSS variant that allows anyone to work with their code beyond Automattic's control.

When you value Tumblr, it's everything. When you value Automattic/WordPress you're valuing their hosting and paid packages but perhaps aren't putting a figure to their OSS offerings?

I agree that it doesn't seem to make much sense.

josefresco 12 years ago | |

I too am curious, as there's not much in the way of revenue even on the horizon for Tumblr according to pieces like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/technology/no-regrets-for-...

jawns 12 years ago |

I'm not sure why ma.tt didn't hyperlink the word Automattic in his post, but he should have, for people who don't know what the company is:

http://automattic.com

gerbal 12 years ago |

I just spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out what Automattic is and does. I gather they are in some way connected to wordpress, but beyond that I am baffled.

pessimizer 12 years ago | |

They are Wordpress, and wordpress.org. Also Akismet, Gravitar and Polldaddy.

westi 12 years ago | | |

Not WordPress.org, WordPress.org is a separate open source project supported by the WordPress Foundation (http://wordpressfoundation.org/).

Yes there is some overlap in people involved but Automattic / WordPress.com and WordPress.org are separate things.

ryanSrich 12 years ago | |

I had a similar reaction the first time I read about them. They've acquired a few apps / businesses as well. I think they do pretty much anything software / Internet related. They 'build products for the web' as it were.

_sentient 12 years ago |

I know that Wordpress as a platform touches a ton of people, but I'm curious to see what sort of revenue Automattic must be doing on the paid side to justify a $1B+ valuation.

I guess it's possible this has little to do with the company's earning potential, and everything to do with reach and influence.

josefresco 12 years ago | |

I would argue that compared to it's competitors, WP has a more solid business model and actual revenue. See Tumblr for an example of a highly valued service, with great reach and "influence" but no revenue.

matthiaswh 12 years ago | |

I find it amusing that one comment questions how the valuation is so high, while another questions how it is so low (compared to a competitor).

While there is a separation between Automattic and the WordPress Foundation, the fact that WordPress powers something like 1/5th of all websites can't be overlooked.healthy. The WordPress VIP service has been picking up a lot of very large enterprises as customers. I imagine their revenue is very

codelust 12 years ago |

It was also only a year ago I said “Automattic is healthy, generating cash, and already growing as fast as it can so there’s no need for the company to raise money directly — we’re not capital constrained.”

I was wrong, but I didn’t realize it until I took on the CEO role in January.

Find this to be really odd.

And it leads into this, which is at odds with the previous statement that they were growing as fast as they can. Did they discover any new avenues for growth that required a whole new raft of capital?

..and we realized we could invest more into WordPress and our products to grow faster

I love the company and Matt. Met him briefly in India many moons ago when he was attending a Wordcamp here.

brianstorms 12 years ago |

It'd be nice if they poured even a few million of this new cash haul into their IntenseDebate blogging-comments service. That, or shut it down since support there is non-responsive.

RankingMember 12 years ago |

I'm sorry, is this the OBD2 dongle-dependent app or a different Automatic? I dug around the blog looking for a link but found nothing obvious.

ceejayoz 12 years ago | |

Automattic (Matt as in Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress) is the company behind WordPress.com, Akismet, etc.

beejiu 12 years ago | |

There's three t's in Automattic.

webwanderings 12 years ago |

Exit strategy?