
New Funding for Automattic - hornokplease
http://ma.tt/2014/05/new-funding-for-automattic/
======
manishsharan
Can a VC or a money guy please explain why a company that is so critical to
web valued less than Tumblr ?

~~~
actionscripted
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.

------
jawns
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](http://automattic.com)

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

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

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

------
_sentient
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
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.

------
codelust
_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
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
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
Automattic (Mat _t_ as in Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress) is the company
behind WordPress.com, Akismet, etc.

------
webwanderings
Exit strategy?

