WordPress / Automattic
WordPress.com is a hosted website and blogging platform built on the open-source WordPress software and operated by Automattic. Launched in 2005, it offers managed WordPress hosting with various subscription tiers ranging from free blogs to enterprise-level sites.
Score generated by AI agents based on publicly cited evidence and reviewed by the project maintainer. Not independently validated. Last assessed 2026-10-01. Score revised 2026-10-01: 52 → 54.
Score History
Timeline events are AI-curated from public reporting. Score trajectory is derived from documented events.
Automattic was founded in June 2005 to run WordPress.com as a hosted service on top of the community-built open-source WordPress software. WordPress.com began showing occasional Google ads on free blogs around 2006 and added a $30-a-year No-Ads upgrade in 2008. In 2010 Automattic transferred the WordPress trademark to the nonprofit WordPress Foundation while keeping an exclusive commercial license.
Jetpack's March 2011 launch brought WordPress.com features such as stats and sharing to self-hosted sites through a WordPress.com connection, extending Automattic's commercial reach into the open-source install base. Mullenweg took over as CEO from Toni Schneider in January 2014, and a $160 million round that May valued Automattic at $1.16 billion. The plugin economy raised switching costs, but users and developers still had a largely open, fee-free ecosystem.
Automattic's purchase of WooThemes and WooCommerce, its largest acquisition to date, put the leading WordPress e-commerce plugin under the same company as WordPress.com and Jetpack. Pagely's CEO had already called Jetpack a 'Trojan horse', and by 2017 Jetpack was pitching 'just in time' backup and security upsells inside the admin. Page builders and WooCommerce extensions deepened switching costs for site owners.
WordPress 5.0 made the Gutenberg block editor the default over calls to delay, prompting the ClassicPress fork and the accessibility team lead's resignation. In 2019 Jetpack promoted its paid products in plugin search results and WooCommerce 3.6 added marketplace suggestions to store admin screens over overwhelmingly negative developer feedback. Automattic bought Tumblr for a nominal sum, raised $300 million at a $3 billion valuation, launched WooCommerce Payments in 2020, and in 2021 disclosed a $288 million round and a $250 million buyback at a $7.5 billion valuation.
WordPress.com's unannounced April 2022 pricing overhaul cut free storage from 3GB to 500MB and collapsed its plans to Free and Pro, partly reversed after backlash. Ads on free blogs multiplied, WordPress.org pulled plugin install-growth charts without a clear explanation, and Jetpack Stats became paid for commercial sites. In February 2024 Automattic moved to share public WordPress.com and Tumblr content with AI companies unless users opted out, and Mullenweg drew a public rebuke from trans staff over a Tumblr moderation dispute.
Mullenweg's WordCamp US keynote calling WP Engine a 'cancer' opened a campaign in which WordPress.org banned WP Engine from its plugin and theme servers, required logins to disavow WP Engine affiliation, took over the ACF plugin and Automattic launched a site listing WP Engine-hosted domains. Automattic demanded 8% of WP Engine's revenue, 159 employees took buyouts over the fight, and WP Engine sued, winning a preliminary injunction in December 2024 that restored its access.
In January 2025 Automattic cut its WordPress core contributions from 3,539 to 45 hours a week and Mullenweg deactivated the contributor accounts of governance critics; 281 staff (16%) were laid off in April and internal pages were watermarked to catch leakers. Contributions resumed from the end of May 2025, but the litigation ground on: WP Engine's February 2026 complaint unsealed plans to sell trademark deals to at least 10 hosts, a judge found Mullenweg evasive in deposition, and WP Engine accused Automattic of destroying evidence. WordPress's share of the web began falling, from 43.6% in early 2025 to 41.5% by July 2026.
On September 9, 2026 Automattic's board put Mullenweg on paid leave and named CFO Mark Davies interim CEO; about 33 hours later Mullenweg used his voting control to retake the company, and the CFO, chief legal officer and three directors left. He named a new board including sci-fi author Hugh Howey and two IRL co-founders and replaced the company's litigation counsel, while staff said they were kept in the dark. Two weeks later the court revived WP Engine's antitrust claims, raising the prospect of treble damages at an October 2027 trial.
Alternatives
Open-source publishing platform built for blogging, newsletters, and memberships. Clean interface with no plugin bloat. Moderate switch — you can export WordPress content and import it, but themes and plugins won't transfer. Self-hosting is free; managed Ghost(Pro) hosting starts at $15/month billed yearly.
Visual website builder with professional-grade design control and a built-in CMS. Great for designers and agencies who want pixel-perfect sites without plugins. Steeper learning curve than Squarespace but more flexible. Hard switch if you have complex WordPress setups with many plugins.
All-in-one website builder with polished templates and built-in hosting, analytics, and ecommerce. Best for small business sites and portfolios. Moderate switch — content can be imported but you'll rebuild your layout from templates. No plugin ecosystem, which is both a limitation and an advantage.
Dimensional Breakdown
Summaries below were written by AI agents based on the cited evidence. They are editorial interpretations, not independent research findings.
Dimension History
Timeline (70 events)
Automattic Founded to Commercialize WordPress
Matt Mullenweg, who co-created the open-source WordPress software in 2003, made Automattic's first hire, developer Donncha O Caoimh, on June 20, 2005, which the company marks as its founding. WordPress.com, the hosted service, reached 100 blogs that September, and the following month Mullenweg left CNET to work on it full time, with the Akismet anti-spam service launching soon after.
Automattic Discloses $1.1M Seed Round
Automattic disclosed a roughly $1.1 million seed round from Polaris Ventures, Blacksmith Capital (True Ventures), Radar Partners and CNET, most of it raised in late 2005. CEO Toni Schneider wrote that the company already earned money from Akismet, services and web hosting partnerships, needed little outside capital, and intended to stay frugal and grow organically. He noted that WordPress.org was owned personally by Mullenweg, not Automattic.
WordPress.com Introduces Paid No-Ads Upgrade
Two years after WordPress.com began showing occasional Google ads on free blogs to visitors who were not logged in, Mullenweg announced a No-Ads upgrade so site owners could keep ads off their blogs. It cost 30 credits a year, or $30 for users without earned credits, establishing the model of paying to remove ads from your own site.
WordPress Trademark Transferred to Foundation with Exclusive License
Automattic transferred the WordPress trademark to the WordPress Foundation, a nonprofit, with Mullenweg writing that WordPress's name was now 'fully independent from any company.' Automattic retained an exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free commercial license, an arrangement that only became widely known during the 2024 WP Engine dispute. WP Engine's October 2025 amended complaint alleged the license was not disclosed in the Foundation's IRS filings for over a decade, describing a structure where WordPress appeared community-owned while Automattic kept commercial control.
Jetpack Plugin Launched for WordPress.org Sites
On March 9, 2011, a five-person Automattic team released Jetpack 1.0 to bring WordPress.com features such as stats and sharing to self-hosted WordPress.org sites through a connection to WordPress.com. By its fifth birthday in 2016 the Jetpack team had grown to 50 and the plugin had millions of users. It was later criticized for bloat and for upgrade prompts promoting Automattic's paid services inside the WordPress admin.
Mullenweg Becomes Automattic CEO
Matt Mullenweg took over as CEO of Automattic from Toni Schneider, who had led the company for just over eight years and shifted to building new products. Mullenweg said the change was not a change in strategy.
Automattic Raises $160M, Reaches Unicorn Status
Automattic raised $160 million in a round led by Insight Venture Partners, valuing the company at $1.16 billion and making it a unicorn. It was the company's first outside funding since 2008; it had previously taken only about $12 million in outside capital. The funding increased pressure to monetize the WordPress ecosystem, and Automattic expanded its commercial product portfolio in the following years.
Pagely CEO Calls Jetpack a 'Trojan Horse' as Mullenweg Defends Bundling
At the Pressnomics conference, Pagely CEO Joshua Strebel pressed Matt Mullenweg on Automattic's agenda behind Jetpack and called it a Trojan horse. Mullenweg replied that WordPress would be declining without Jetpack, arguing that 'naked WordPress' was not competitive with Wix, Weebly and Squarespace. Critics in the ensuing discussion warned that as Jetpack was promoted and absorbed more features, users would research third-party plugins less and the independent plugin ecosystem would dry up.
Automattic Acquires WooCommerce in Its Largest Deal (Reported $30M+)
Automattic acquired WooThemes and its WooCommerce e-commerce plugin in its largest acquisition to date, bringing in 55 employees from 16 countries. The price was not disclosed; Re/code reported it at more than $30 million in cash and stock. WooCommerce had passed seven million downloads and, per TechCrunch, powered roughly 600,000 storefronts. The deal extended Automattic's commercial ecosystem into e-commerce, creating new monetization through WooCommerce extensions, themes and later WooCommerce Payments.
Jetpack's 'Just in Time' Upsell Nags Spread Through WordPress Admin
The Matt Report documented a rise in Jetpack upsell messages that appear 'just in time', such as prompts to buy backup and security plans right after a user publishes a post, which led some site owners to question their site's security. Jetpack support initially said the free version offered no way to turn the prompts off; they can be disabled only with a code filter. The post described Jetpack as the revenue bridge between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, and commenters reported similar nags tied to WooCommerce's tax and shipping services.
Page Builder Shortcodes Lock Sites Into Plugins, Nelio Warns
Nelio Software described how pages it had built with the Visual Composer (WPBakery) page builder turned into an unreadable pile of shortcodes once the plugin was deactivated, forcing it to rebuild the content; other plugins store content in non-standard database tables, leaving pages empty when removed. Builders like WPBakery and Divi had added a proprietary lock-in layer on top of WordPress's open-source core.
WordPress 5.0 Forces Gutenberg Block Editor on Users
WordPress 5.0 shipped with the Gutenberg block editor as the default, replacing the Classic Editor despite significant community opposition, developer calls to delay over hundreds of open issues, and accessibility concerns; accessibility team lead Rian Rietveld had resigned in October 2018, saying the situation had become too politically complicated. Opposition prompted developer Scott Bowler to fork WordPress as ClassicPress, arguing that major decisions were being made 'by an elite few.' WordPress offered the Classic Editor as a plugin, but the episode showed Mullenweg, the 5.0 release lead, overriding community objections on core product decisions.
Jetpack Caught Promoting Paid Upgrades in Plugin Search Results
Jetpack 7.1 added 'feature suggestions' to the WordPress plugin search screen, and searching for terms like 'backups' put Jetpack's paid offering in the top result, pushing other plugins down. Plugin Review Team member Samuel Wood said promoting paid upgrades there was 'likely a violation' of directory guidelines, while the team said it might be but would not close a plugin with over 5 million installs. A pull request limiting suggestions to features in the user's plan was merged.
WooCommerce 3.6 Adds Marketplace Suggestions Over Developer Objections
WooCommerce announced that version 3.6 would add 'Marketplace Suggestions', contextual promotions of official marketplace extensions on product and order admin screens, switched on by default. WP Tavern called it one of the most unpopular changes in the project's history; developer feedback was overwhelmingly negative, and turning the suggestions off initially required a code filter.
Automattic Acquires Tumblr from Verizon for Under $3M
Automattic agreed to buy Tumblr from Verizon for an undisclosed, 'nominal' sum, reported by Axios at less than $3 million, versus Yahoo's $1.1 billion purchase in 2013. Automattic took on about 200 Tumblr staff. Tumblr kept losing money, sustained by profits from Automattic's other products; a planned migration of Tumblr to WordPress infrastructure was put on hold in 2025, and in October 2025 Mullenweg called Tumblr 'probably my biggest failure or missed opportunity right now.'
Automattic Raises $300M at $3B Valuation from Salesforce Ventures
Automattic closed a $300 million Series D round led by Salesforce Ventures, pushing the company's valuation to $3 billion. The funding came shortly after the Tumblr acquisition and increased pressure to grow revenue across the commercial ecosystem. Total funding exceeded $600 million.
WooCommerce Payments Launches, Deepening Merchant Lock-in
Automattic launched WooCommerce Payments, a native payment gateway built in partnership with Stripe, allowing merchants to manage payments directly within the WooCommerce dashboard. While convenient, the integration deepened merchants' dependency on the Automattic ecosystem and created a new revenue stream from payment processing fees.
Automattic's Acquisition Spree Expands Beyond WordPress Core Mission
In mid-2021, Automattic acquired the Day One journaling app (June) and the Pocket Casts podcast app (July), extending its portfolio well beyond WordPress and publishing. The deals added to a growing set of consumer apps alongside Tumblr and Simplenote that Automattic had to fund from its WordPress businesses.
Automattic Discloses $288M Round, $250M Buyback at $7.5B Valuation
Mullenweg disclosed that Automattic had closed a $288 million primary funding round in February 2021 with BlackRock, Wellington, Schonfeld and Alta Park, plus existing investors, and had just completed a $250 million share buyback, aimed mainly at current and former employees, at a $7.5 billion valuation. Like all funding since 2011, the round included a proxy giving Mullenweg the right to vote the shares. BlackRock paid $85 per share and later marked the stake down to $31.03.
WordPress.com Slashes Free Storage 6x in Unannounced Pricing Overhaul
WordPress.com replaced its five pricing tiers with just two plans (Free and $15/month Pro), cutting free storage from 3GB to 500MB and imposing traffic caps where none previously existed. The changes were made without advance notice. After overwhelmingly negative feedback, WordPress.com partially reverted in July 2022, reintroducing the old plan structure, though the free tier remained degraded.
WordPress.org Removes Plugin Install-Growth Charts
WordPress.org meta contributors removed the active install growth charts from the plugin directory over the weekend, citing 'insufficient data obfuscation'. Plugin developers, for whom the charts were one of the only measures of a plugin's growth or decline, objected to the change and to the lack of transparency about how it was decided.
Users Document Aggressive Ad Proliferation on Free WordPress.com Blogs
WPcomMaven, a blog about WordPress.com, documented escalating ads on free-tier sites, including Outbrain 'Sponsored Content' units appearing in groups of three and sometimes nine at once, plus a top banner promoting WordPress.com sign-ups. The post noted ads had run on free sites since 2006, and that WordPress.com removed the standalone No Ads add-on in November 2022, leaving a paid plan as the only way to remove them; a commenter counted nine ads between the Like button and the comments.
Review Finds Jetpack Checkout Totals Exceed Advertised Prices
A Crocoblock review of Jetpack found its pricing page advertised the Security bundle at $20 a month billed yearly, yet checkout showed $300 for the year rather than $240, and $1 first-month prices for Backup and Social renewed at $144 and $198 for the following year. The free plan, it said, kept showing upgrade ads.
Jetpack Stats Becomes Paid for Commercial Sites
Jetpack announced that commercial sites, defined as sites that try to make money, would pay for Jetpack Stats based on their traffic, with a $10-a-month introductory tier through 2023. Personal sites stayed free.
Mullenweg Publicly Spars with Trans User, Reveals Private Account Info
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg personally intervened in a Tumblr moderation dispute, publicly sharing private side-blog names of a trans user whose account was suspended. Trans staff at Tumblr and Automattic publicly rebuked Mullenweg, stating his 'continued commentary had been unwarranted and harmful.' The incident demonstrated the governance risks of a single individual wielding unchecked authority over multiple platforms, with no escalation path or oversight mechanism to prevent CEO-level moderation decisions.
Automattic Plans to Share User Content with AI Companies Unless Users Opt Out
After 404 Media reported that Automattic was preparing to sell Tumblr and WordPress.com content to Midjourney and OpenAI, Automattic said it would share only public content from sites that had not opted out, and added settings to discourage AI crawling. Inclusion was the default; users had to opt out.
Mullenweg Calls WP Engine 'Cancer to WordPress' at WordCamp US
In his WordCamp US 2024 keynote, Mullenweg attacked WP Engine for profiting from WordPress while pledging just 40 hours a week to the project versus Automattic's 3,900, and urged its customers to switch hosts. In a follow-up blog post he called WP Engine a 'cancer to WordPress.' Automattic separately sought a trademark license under which WP Engine would pay 8% of gross revenue or contribute equivalent developer time. The episode triggered lawsuits, community fractures and the worst governance crisis in WordPress's 21-year history.
WordPress.org Bans WP Engine, Blocking Plugin and Theme Updates
WordPress.org banned WP Engine from accessing its plugin and theme repositories, blocking updates for hundreds of thousands of WP Engine-hosted sites. The ban disrupted security patches and feature updates for WP Engine customers. WordPress.org temporarily lifted the ban on September 27 until October 1, giving WP Engine time to deploy its own update infrastructure solution.
WP Engine Files Lawsuit Alleging Abuse of Power and Extortion
WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg in the Northern District of California, alleging abuse of power, attempted extortion, unfair competition, and defamation. The 62-page complaint argued that Automattic leveraged its control of WordPress.org infrastructure to extract payments from a competitor. WP Engine later expanded the complaint to 144 pages with additional antitrust claims.
159 Automattic Employees Accept Buyout Over WP Engine Dispute
After Mullenweg offered an 'Alignment Offer' of $30,000 or six months' salary to any employee who disagreed with his handling of the WP Engine dispute, 159 employees (8.4% of staff) departed. Mullenweg later escalated with a second offer of nine months' compensation and threatened that employees speaking to the press should 'exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.'
Mullenweg Declares 'WordPress.org Just Belongs to Me Personally'
In an interview with The Verge, Mullenweg stated 'WordPress.org just belongs to me personally,' making explicit the personal ownership of the infrastructure serving 43% of the web. He admitted altering the WordPress Foundation's trademark policy specifically to target WP Engine and likened his approach to getting 'Al Capone for taxes.' The statement contradicted years of community messaging that WordPress was a community-governed open-source project.
WordPress.org Login Requires WP Engine Loyalty Oath Checkbox
WordPress.org added a mandatory checkbox to its login page requiring users to confirm 'I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise' before accessing the plugin repository. Core contributor Andy Fragen suspended contributions over legal concerns. Long-time core committer Ryan McCue, who created the WordPress REST API, was banned from WordPress.org and the Making WordPress Slack for objecting. The checkbox was removed in December 2024 per court order.
WordPress.org Seizes WP Engine's ACF Plugin Without Consent
WordPress.org forcibly took over the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, used by millions of WordPress sites, forking it as 'Secure Custom Fields' (SCF). WP Engine described this as unprecedented in WordPress's 21-year history. Mullenweg justified the takeover by citing commercial upsells embedded in ACF, but the action triggered developer flight from the WordPress.org repository, with projects like Paid Memberships Pro choosing to self-host distribution instead.
Automattic Employees Describe 'Paranoia and Fear' Culture
404 Media reported that remaining Automattic employees described 'a culture of paranoia and fear' after the buyout. Many who stayed said they did so because of financial strain or the job market, not agreement with Mullenweg, who had followed up with a new buyout offer and a warning that staff speaking to the press should 'exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.' The outlet also reported that in July 2024 Mullenweg had redirected Blind sign-up emails sent to employees' work addresses to himself.
Plugin Developers Begin Pulling Projects from WordPress.org
Multiple developers began withdrawing plugins from the WordPress.org repository following the ACF seizure. Paid Memberships Pro closed its plugin listing and switched to self-hosted distribution. Community developers created Morpheus, an open-source mirror, as an alternative to WordPress.org's plugin repository. The exodus signaled a breakdown in trust between third-party developers and the platform.
Automattic Launches Site Tracking WP Engine Customer Departures
Automattic confirmed it created WP Engine Tracker, at wordpressenginetracker.com, which counted sites leaving WP Engine since the feud began; it showed more than 16,000 domains had switched. The official WordPress account on X promoted offers to migrate sites off WP Engine. The site later listed more than 842,000 WP Engine-hosted domains, a fact customers cited in their class action.
WP Engine Expands Lawsuit with Antitrust Claims
WP Engine filed an amended 144-page complaint adding antitrust claims under federal law, alleging Automattic held 'monopoly power' across four relevant markets. The expanded claims argued that Mullenweg's control of WordPress.org constituted infrastructure monopolization used to extract rents from competitors and that the trademark licensing demands amounted to anticompetitive conduct.
BlackRock Marks Down Its Automattic Stake by 10%
BlackRock, which invested in Automattic's 2021 round, valued its shares at $37.50 in its latest quarterly disclosure, down 10% from $41.70 earlier in 2024. The markdown came as Automattic's fight with WP Engine escalated.
Court Orders Automattic to Restore WP Engine Access
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted WP Engine's preliminary injunction, ordering Automattic to restore WP Engine's WordPress.org access to its September 20, 2024 state, remove the loyalty oath login checkbox, and reinstate ACF plugin access. The court found WP Engine was 'likely to succeed on the merits' of its intentional interference claim and cited the loss of a $40,000 client contract as evidence of harm. The judge declined Automattic's request for a $1.6 million bond.
WordPress Community Leaders Issue Rare Open Letter Demanding Governance Reform
Core contributors and community leaders published an open letter titled 'Dear WordPress community: We stand with you,' calling for governance reform. The letter objected to one person controlling all official infrastructure: website, email, support forums, repositories, update systems, security tools and communication channels. All of the roughly 20 signatories remained anonymous, verified only by The Repository, citing fear of retaliation by Mullenweg.
Automattic Slashes WordPress Core Contributions 98% to 45 Hours/Week
Automattic announced it would reduce its sponsored contributions to WordPress core from 3,539 hours per week to just 45 hours, matching WP Engine's contribution level. Redirected resources went to Automattic's for-profit products: WordPress.com, Pressable, WPVIP, Jetpack, and WooCommerce. The move effectively weaponized open-source contributions as leverage in the WP Engine dispute, threatening the development velocity of software powering 43% of the web.
Mullenweg Deactivates Five WordPress Contributor Accounts
Mullenweg deactivated the WordPress.org accounts of five community members: Joost de Valk (Yoast co-founder), Karim Marucchi, Se Reed (WP Community Collective president), Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen. Mullenweg alleged fork plans, but de Valk and Marucchi denied it, saying they discussed 'federated mirrors,' not a fork. Rand-Hendriksen noted he and Burns had advocated for governance reform since 2017.
WordPress.com Pricing Tiers Gate Increasing Functionality Behind Paywalls
By early 2025, WordPress.com's paid plans ran from $4 to $45 a month and gated progressively more functionality: premium themes needed Premium, installing plugins and removing the footer link needed Business, and e-commerce needed the top-tier Commerce plan. Free sites showed WordPress.com ads that only a paid plan removed. The combination pushed users toward upgrades.
Festinger Vault Settles After Automattic Had Its Founder's Assets Seized
Festinger Vault, a GPL club redistributing premium plugins, announced a confidential settlement with Automattic and removed all WordPress and Woo trademarks and Automattic products. Automattic had accused founder Martin Groot of trademark infringement and GPL non-compliance in September 2024, obtained an order shutting the site, and successfully petitioned the Amsterdam District Court to seize his car, bank accounts and half of his home.
WP Engine Customer Class Action Filed Against Automattic
WP Engine customer Ryan Keller filed a proposed class action against Automattic and Mullenweg in the Northern District of California, seeking to represent 'hundreds of thousands' of US-based WP Engine customers who held active hosting plans between September 24 and December 10, 2024. The complaint alleged tortious interference and violations of California's Unfair Competition Law, claiming Automattic weaponized WordPress.org to cripple WP Engine's business.
Mullenweg Rejects Handing WordPress Leadership to 'a Committee'
Amid calls for him to step down over the WP Engine fight, Mullenweg said on Lenny's Podcast that he does not want to pass what he built with Automattic and WordPress to 'a committee', but to a single successor in a role like his. He said the most iconic companies are those whose leaders keep majority voting control, and argued the check on such power is that the community could leave or fork the software.
Automattic Lays Off 281 Employees (16% of Workforce)
Automattic laid off 281 employees across more than 90 countries, representing 16% of its workforce. Over 100 came from WooCommerce alone. Mullenweg cited the need to become 'more agile and responsive' and ensure 'a viable financial model.' The layoffs came just six months after the October 2024 buyout of 159 employees, meaning Automattic lost approximately 440 people (nearly 25% of its peak workforce) in under a year.
Automattic Employees Discover Covert Watermarking of Internal Communications
Following the April layoffs, Automattic employees discovered nearly invisible watermarks overlaid on pages of P2, the company's internal intranet platform. Each watermark was individually unique, designed to identify any employee who leaked screenshots to media. Employees said the discovery further demoralized the workforce and deepened the culture of paranoia reported since October 2024.
Automattic Resumes WordPress Contributions After Five-Month Pause
Automattic said it was 'ready to press play again' and would return fully to work on WordPress core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse and WordPress.org, ending the pause that had cut its pledge from 3,539 to 45 hours a week. Its Five for the Future page then showed 76 people contributing 500 hours a week. The pullback had already led WordPress to move to one major release a year.
BlackRock Marks Down Automattic Investment by 63.5% from Purchase Price
BlackRock's quarterly disclosure, published in March and reported in June, valued its Automattic shares at $31.03, down 17% from $37.50 in December 2024 and 63.5% below the $85 per share it paid in Automattic's 2021 round. The markdown followed earlier cuts from $41.70 to $37.50 in late 2024.
Linux Foundation Launches FAIR Alternative to WordPress.org
A group of WordPress developers and contributors backed by the Linux Foundation launched the FAIR Package Manager, a federated, vendor-neutral system for distributing and updating WordPress plugins and themes without relying on WordPress.org. It was a direct response to WordPress.org's 2024 ban of WP Engine.
Court Dismisses Antitrust Claims but Core Counts Proceed to Trial
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed WP Engine's four antitrust counts (with leave to amend) and its extortion claims, but let 13 of its 20 counts proceed, including interference with WP Engine's business, California unfair competition claims, and a computer fraud claim over the replacement of ACF with Secure Custom Fields on customer sites. Defamation counts must clear California's anti-SLAPP statute. Automattic still faced a jury trial on the remaining claims.
Automattic Files Counterclaims Alleging WP Engine Trademark Misuse
Automattic filed counterclaims against WP Engine, joined by WooCommerce and the WordPress Foundation, alleging that WP Engine deliberately infringed the WordPress trademark, used deceptive marketing such as 'Core WordPress' and 'Headless WordPress' product names, and negotiated a license in bad faith. The filing also alleged that WP Engine's owner Silver Lake had tried to sell the company at a $2 billion valuation, including overtures to Automattic.
Automattic Demands Automatic.CSS Rebrand Amid Mullenweg Feud
An intellectual property attorney for Automattic sent a letter dated October 30 asking Automatic.CSS, a CSS framework for WordPress page builders, to change its name, amid public spats between Mullenweg and Automatic.CSS creator Kevin Geary. 404 Media reported the demand on November 6.
Court Dismisses WP Engine Customer Class Action with Leave to Refile
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed all three claims in the proposed class action by WP Engine customers Ryan Keller and Sharon Schanzer, finding they had not plausibly alleged Automattic knew of their specific contracts with WP Engine. She gave them 30 days to refile; they filed an amended complaint in January 2026.
Unsealed Filing Details Automattic Plan to Sell Trademark Deals to Rival Hosts
WP Engine's third amended complaint, which added WooCommerce and the WordPress Foundation as defendants, made public previously redacted internal Automattic documents. They sorted hosts into 'friends (like Newfold) who pay us a lot of money', 'would-be friends' and 'charlatans', said Automattic should 'steal every single WP site' from the latter, and described targeting at least 10 hosts besides WP Engine with costly trademark 'partnerships': 'if they don't take the carrot we'll give them the stick.' The complaint also alleged Mullenweg emailed a Stripe executive urging it to cancel its contracts with WP Engine.
WordPress.com Opens Plugins and Custom CSS to Every Paid Plan
WordPress.com made plugins from the 50,000-plus WordPress.org directory, Global Styles, custom font uploads and custom CSS available on every paid plan starting with Personal, at no extra charge for existing subscribers. Plugin installation had previously required a higher tier.
Mullenweg Overrules Core Committers to Feature Akismet in WordPress 7.0
Mullenweg directed core committers to keep Automattic's Akismet spam plugin registered on WordPress 7.0's new Connectors screen, overruling a revert backed by several committers. The change had been committed 36 minutes after an Automattic-sponsored contributor opened the ticket, with no public discussion, during the release-candidate period. He wrote that it was 'pathological' to keep attacking him and Automattic.
Court Finds Mullenweg Appeared 'Evasive' in Deposition
Magistrate Judge Ajay Krishnan found that Mullenweg 'appeared to be evasive or to waste time' during his three-day, 21-hour deposition and granted WP Engine three more hours, among discovery rulings issued after fact discovery closed on May 14.
WordPress Share of the Web Falls to 41.5%
W3Techs data showed WordPress powering 41.5% of websites, down from a peak of 43.6% in early 2025, after six consecutive quarters of decline that accelerated in 2026. The Repository noted WordPress peaked after the WP Engine litigation began and had been flat for two years before it, so the dispute is only part of the explanation.
Mullenweg Cites 'Competing Interests' on Restoring Plugin Install Data
Almost four years after WordPress.org removed plugin install-growth charts, Mullenweg commented on the ticket asking for their return, saying there were 'competing interests' including 'the long-term incentives of commercial vs community plugins.' He gave no timeline or commitment to restore the data.
WP Engine Customer Class Action Survives Second Motion to Dismiss
Judge Martinez-Olguin ruled that WP Engine customers Ryan Keller and Sharon Schanzer had adequately alleged Automattic knowingly disrupted their hosting contracts, citing Automattic's WordPress Engine Tracker site, which listed more than 842,000 WP Engine-hosted domains, and allegations that Automattic sales reps contacted WP Engine customers soon after the disruption began.
WP Engine Seeks Sanctions, Alleging Automattic Destroyed Evidence
WP Engine asked the court to sanction Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging his WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram messages from September 2024 were not preserved despite repeated assurances from Automattic's lawyers. Two days before WP Engine's September 2024 preservation demand, Mullenweg had publicly urged people leaking him information to use 'Signal with disappearing messages.' WP Engine asked for an adverse-inference jury instruction and dismissal of Automattic's trademark counterclaims; Automattic called the motion baseless.
Automattic Board Places Mullenweg on Leave
Automattic's board voted to put Mullenweg on paid leave and named CFO Mark Davies interim CEO. Mullenweg told staff in Slack that Davies had 'conspired' with directors Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker, and that he received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting. The board gave no public reason.
BlackRock Values Automattic Shares 83% Below 2021 Price
BlackRock's semi-annual filing dated June 30, 2026 valued its Automattic shares at about $14.33, 83% below the $85 per share it paid in the 2021 round at a $7.5 billion valuation, implying roughly $1.26 billion. Its valuation had fallen from roughly $26.10 in September 2025 to $17.20 in March 2026.
Mullenweg Retakes Control, CFO and Directors Depart
About 33 hours after being placed on leave, Mullenweg told staff he was 'in control of Automattic', and the company confirmed him as chairman and CEO. Sources said CFO Mark Davies, chief legal officer Andy Missan and directors Toni Schneider and Sue Decker were gone; On X he joked that a founder should expect a coup attempt every few years.
Automattic Staff Kept in the Dark as Anonymous Forum Closes
A week after the board crisis, an Automattic employee told The Repository that staff had received no explanation of why the board acted, that questions in Slack went unanswered, and that Anonymattic, an internal space for anonymous posts, had been closed after frustration spilled onto it.
Court Revives WP Engine's Antitrust Claims Against Automattic
Judge Martinez-Olguin reversed her September 2025 dismissal and let WP Engine's monopolization, attempted monopolization and two tying claims proceed, finding it had plausibly alleged Automattic used control of WordPress.org to extract millions from competitors for access that used to be free. Most of Automattic's trademark counterclaims also survived. Summary judgment motions are due November 20, and a 10-day jury trial is set for October 19, 2027.
Mullenweg Names New Automattic Board
Mullenweg told staff that Automattic's new board included science-fiction author Hugh Howey, author Amy Chan, and IRL co-founders Henry Khachatryan and Krutal Desai, after removing or accepting the resignations of the directors who voted to put him on leave. He wrote that for Delaware law purposes he was the company's CEO, President, Treasurer and Secretary; he controls 84% of the vote.
Filings Reveal WordPress.org Dashboard Tracking WP Engine's ACF Pro Installs
Newly public deposition excerpts showed Automattic CTO Barry Abrahamson testifying about 'Mission Control', a password-protected WordPress.org dashboard that graphed active installs of WP Engine's ACF Pro, a plugin WordPress.org does not host, drawing on data sites send when checking for updates. Mullenweg's deposition also included an August 2024 Slack message about going 'full nuclear' with WP Engine 'with a possibility of a partnerships/merger/M&A as an exit.'
Evidence (60 citations)
D1: User Value Erosion
D2: Business Customer Exploitation
D3: Shareholder Extraction
D4: Lock-in & Switching Costs
D5: Twiddling & Algorithmic Opacity
D6: Dark Patterns
D7: Advertising & Monetization Pressure
D8: Competitive Conduct
D9: Labor & Governance
D10: Regulatory & Legal Posture
Scoring Log (6 entries)
Checked 94 items + prose. 43 verified, 35 corrected (15 date-only), 8 re-sourced, 8 removed. Invented: 2021 round given as $275M (Mullenweg's post: $288M); Automattic revenue of $710M (GetLatka estimate only); Tedium credited with raising trademark-license concerns in Feb 2024 (the license became public in Sept 2024); Wix/Squarespace/Shopify growth figures (Kinsta gives 3.6 to 4.6%, 3.0 to 3.2%, 5.7 to 6.6%). Fixed misdated Jetpack search promotion (2019, not 2023), BlackRock markdown (2024, not 2022), Tumblr migration status, and the trial date (now October 2027).
52->54. Since Feb 2026: unsealed filing on trademark-deal scheme vs 10+ hosts (Feb), plugins on all WP.com paid plans (Apr), Akismet override in WP 7.0 (Apr), Mullenweg found evasive (Jun), class action revived and spoliation sanctions motion (Jul), board ouster reversed in 33 hours with CFO/CLO/directors purged and new board (Sep), BlackRock mark 83% below 2021, antitrust claims revived (Sep 24), Mission Control dashboard revealed (Sep 30). D1 5->4 (event: contributions resumed May 2025, plugins on all paid plans Apr 2026), D2 6->7 (event: unsealed trademark-partnership scheme, court finding of extraction for formerly free access), D4 5->4 (recalibration: GPL/WXR portability, FAIR alternative, falling share), D5 4->5 (event: Akismet override, install data withheld for 'competing interests', Mission Control tracking), D9 8->9 (event: failed board ouster and purge), D10 4->5 (event: Automatic.CSS demand, evasive-deposition finding, sanctions motion, class action survives). Eras: all six old boundaries re-dated to inflection events (2005-06-01->2005-06-20 Automattic founded; 2011-01-01->2011-03-09 Jetpack; 2015-06-01->2015-05-19 WooCommerce; 2019-01-01->2018-12-06 WordPress 5.0; 2022-04-01->2022-04-05 pricing overhaul; 2024-09-01->2024-09-20 WordCamp keynote); 'Governance Collapse' re-dated 2026-02-11->2025-01-09 (core contribution cut) and relabeled 'Retreat and Retaliation'; new era 'Failed Board Ouster' 2026-09-09. Era summaries fixed per handoff (2014 round, 2020/2021 events, Jetpack search promotion in 2019 era).
No material changes since 2026-02-11. Checked WP Engine litigation (third amended complaint Feb 2026, class action dismissed/refiled, motions-to-dismiss hearings June 2026 — trial still Feb 2027), Mullenweg's May 2026 'I submit' Silver Lake post (no settlement reached), Akismet/WP 7.0 committer reversal, continued market-share slide to 41.9%, pricing, layoffs, and acquisitions. All findings are incremental continuations of the already-scored governance crisis; no dimension moves into a different band.