The companies behind Automattic, WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce and various other online services are cutting their workforce. The layoffs will affect 16% of staff across the department, an Automattic blog post published Wednesday revealed.
Prior to the layoffs, the Automattic website lists 1,744 employees. (Automattic refused to check this number, but I’ve heard that the exact number is 281.)
The post explained that this “restructuring” is necessary due to the market’s competitiveness and the speed at which technology is evolving, as it was shared with company employees via Slack on Wednesday.
But the move also comes after a turbulent year for Automattic, who is engaged in a controversial legal battle with hosting company WP Engine. The ongoing drama has already led to the departure of some Automattic employees last fall. In the opinion of Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, the hosting provider’s WP engine has not contributed enough to the open source project WordPress.org, and the use of the “WP” brand has confused consumers about its partnership with WordPress itself.
In an announcement Wednesday, Mullenweg explained that the newly announced layoffs will allow Automattic to “better agile and responsive,” “decompose silos that have created inefficiency,” “focusing on product quality,” and “ensure viable financial models for long-term success.”
“To support our customers and our products, we need to improve our productivity, profitability and investment capabilities,” reads a post written by Mullenweg.
This layoff will affect employees from 90 countries.
“Automattic has multiple products with the potential to take the world away from WordPress. I am confident that we are poised to create a vibrant, profitable, well-designed company that will continue its mission to democratize the Internet,” writes Mullenweg.
According to a TechCrunch source, the layoffs were immediately effective, meaning people received emails and quickly lost access to Slack. We understand that the layoffs include long-time employees who have been in the company within 10 years.
The news follows the cancellation of Automattic, the annual “Grand Meetup” company retreat in 2025.
Sarah Perez can be contacted at Signal and sarahp@techcrunch.com at @Sarahperez.01.
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