Automattic

Automattic acquires relationship manager Clay to add an identity layer to online tools

After acquiring universal messaging apps Beeper and Texts.com, WordPress.com owner Automattic has added another communication-focused startup to its lineup: relationship-management app Clay. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Clay had so far raised over $9 million in venture capital from investors like General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures. The tool will continue to

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Automattic says it will start contributing to WordPress again after pause

WordPress.com parent company Automattic is changing direction… again. In a blog post titled “Returning to Core” published Thursday evening, Automattic announced it will unpause its contributions to the WordPress project. This is despite having said only last month that the 6.8 WordPress release would be the final major release for all of 2025. “After pausing

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WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff

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 1,744 employees, which means north of 270 people may have lost their jobs. (Automattic

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

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

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Tumblr backs Tapestry, a timeline app for the open social web

Automattic-owned blogging site and social platform Tumblr has financially backed Tapestry, the newly launched app designed to organize feeds from across the open web, including RSS, Mastodon, Bluesky, and others. Launched as a Kickstarter project in January 2024, Tapestry went on to raise over $177,000 via crowdfunding for its app, which opened up to the

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Automattic-owned Beeper is releasing redesigned desktop and iOS apps

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

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Tumblr to join the fediverse after WordPress migration completes

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,

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Hackers are hijacking WordPress sites to push Windows and Mac malware

Hackers are exploiting outdated versions of WordPress and plug-ins to alter thousands of websites in an attempt to trick visitors to download and install malware, security researchers have found. The hacking campaign is still “very much live,” Simon Wijckmans, the founder and CEO of web security company c/side, which discovered the attacks, told TechCrunch on

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