Automattic Being Acquired?
11 Comments October 28, 2007 1187 Views
Barely two weeks after they acquired Gravatar, unverified reports or rumors are spreading that Automattic itself will be acquired.
How much you ask? Automattic, the company behind popular blogging platform WordPress is said to be valued right now between $150 million to $300 million and I’m sure they would be looking to sell the company as high as possible. There are several companies interested in acquiring Automattic and one of the potential buyers is Velocity Investment Group, a fully integrated real estate investment and mortgage lending company.
If this rumor is true and Automattic would be acquired by Velocity Investment Group or one of the companies involved, one question comes to my mind - what will happen to WordPress? While Automattic products and services exist and evolve around WordPress and they own the trademark the thing is they don’t own the software. It’s under the GNU General Public License meaning its open source and community owned. Since this is only a rumor, all we can do is wait and see what will happen in the coming days or weeks.
What do you think of this rumored acquisition? What effects will it have on WordPress, its development and its community? Will the acquisition of Automattic change anything? Share your thoughts!
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Hello and welcome to JaypeeOnline! My name is Jaypee Habaradas and I'm the author of this blog that talks about the latest blogging news, WordPress theme and plugin reviews, technology, gadgets and tips & tricks.
Maybe they’ll really sell if they have something bigger in the drawing boards that would require some considerable capital to start.
Here’s a bigger whopper, what if Google buys Automattic?!
@jhay - Maybe, but the Gravatar acquisition itself adds a lot of value to Automattic.
About Google acquiring Automattic, it’s not impossible but it’s unlikely. The one most likely to do it would be Yahoo! because they don’t have their own blogging platform.
is that true? eh can’t believe this it would sell and buy automatic.. what is that for hehe?
@Rina - This is just a rumor. Automattic is the name of the company behind WordPress one of the popular blogging platforms today.
Btw, thanks for dropping by.
Wow. That is big news Jaypee! I sure hope they don’t sell out. That might destroy the Wordpress community. Or maybe even make WP commercialized with payments. Oh noes.
@McBilly - If Automattic gets acquired, the software WordPress would remain free because its open source and it’s owned by the community and not the company. They only own the name and trademark.
If the acquisition takes place, I hope it won’t affect the WordPress development and community.
i think the organized of automattic is also one of the backend programmers of WP. So, I think they compensate each other
By the way, I’m trying to access your contact page to ask for an exchange link but it has an error
I’ve added you to my technorati fave and also to my blogroll.
@scart - Who are you referring to? Matt Mullenweg?
Anyways, thanks for informing me about the problem with my Contact page. I didn’t know it was not working until now and I’ve fixed it already.
Thanks for adding me to your blogroll and Technorati faves! I’ll definitely return the favor.
I’ve read from TechCrunch that Automattic rejected a $200M offer. I guess nothing’s going to happen to our beloved company right now.
Btw, I think Yahoo! has some blogging platform, albeit somewhat obscured in a social networking fashion. Oh, but they’ve decided to drop development on Yahoo! 360, haven’t they?
I think you’re filter has decided I was spam on a comment before this. I have a link there to an article saying Automattic rejected a $200M offer.