Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
1–10 of 127 posts
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#2I genuinely thought Automattic is already profitable, is it not?
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#3$160 million dollars is a ton of money. WTF.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#4I genuinely thought Automattic is already profitable, is it not?
To me, they seem to have to have a lot of employees (940, soon 1200) for what they do. That probably makes it harder.
I'm curious what portion of the employees are development folks.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#5Does anyone else see a misalignment between the $3B valuation and the huge impact Wordpress has had on the internet? 1/3 of all websites are powered by Wordpress, yet they seem to be valued low compared to other tech companies.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#6I genuinely thought Automattic is already profitable, is it not?
Automattic is profitable.
This funding round is less about securing long-term profitability and more about long-term partnerships and scaling their portfolio of products[1] deeper into other third-parties such as Salesforce (and beyond):
> “The problem we’re tying to solve is likely multigenerational. It can take the rest of our lives and we need to pass it on to the generation that comes after to continue to work on it. Hopefully for the rest of humanity because I can’t imagine a time when humanity cannot benefit from an open, free, connected web,” Mullenweg told me.
> When it comes to today’s funding round, Salesforce Ventures isn’t your traditional investor — and Mullenweg is well aware of that. There could be some partnerships and integrations between Salesforce and Automattic in the future.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#7Does anyone else see a misalignment between the $3B valuation and the huge impact Wordpress has had on the internet? 1/3 of all websites are powered by Wordpress, yet they seem to be valued low compared to other tech companies.
Open source has massive benefits. WordPress would be nothing if it was closed off.
But open source also means users can fork if the company sucks.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#8Does anyone else see a misalignment between the $3B valuation and the huge impact Wordpress has had on the internet? 1/3 of all websites are powered by Wordpress, yet they seem to be valued low compared to other tech companies.
Pretty sure the vast majority of those WordPress sites bring them no revenue.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#9> “The roadmap is the same. I just think we might be able to do it in five years instead of ten,” Mullenweg said.
I tried to hunt for why the investment was taken and this is all the article mentions. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m guessing that competition is heating up and they need marketing fuel to keep people on the platform while they transform it from a duct taped blogging tool to something more flexible.
There is no middle ground with WP. You’re either buying a generic theme that doesn’t really fit your business and forcing your content into it... (every small business out there right now) or you’re Rolling Stone and you run big boy WP with major customizations. The middle area is weak. That’s where people like Wix etc... are eating their lunch.
Re: Automattic raises $300M at $3B valuation from Salesforce Ventures
#10Does anyone else see a misalignment between the $3B valuation and the huge impact Wordpress has had on the internet? 1/3 of all websites are powered by Wordpress, yet they seem to be valued low compared to other tech companies.
The less value you capture as tech provider, the more value is captured by your customers and allows them to strive, so it makes a lot of sense to me.