The scandals around WordPress are endless, and more specifically for Automattic, the company that publishes numerous online services such as Tumblr, WooCommerce, and WordPress.com, the best known of them.
Indeed, on September 21, 2024, Matt Mullenweg already spoke out on a blog post to launch into a heavy controversial battle against WP Engine, a hosting company that was until now closely linked to WordPress. After judging that the hosting company had not contributed enough to the WordPress open-source project, the company's CEO felt that the term "WP" was highly confusing.
This stormy separation between the website editing solution and the hosting company had already led, a few months ago, to numerous departures from the company. However, an article published on the Automattic website this Wednesday announced news that could amplify this phenomenon... More than 270 WordPress employees are losing their jobs. With 1,744 employees listed on the official Automattic website, this would result in more than 270 layoffs, according to TechCrunch's calculations. While some sources close to the company claim the exact number is 281, this has yet to be confirmed by Automattic.
Among the employees affected by this mass layoff, TechCrunch reports that the company has notably chosen to separate from loyal employees of 10 years. A source reportedly told TechCrunch that these layoffs were carried out immediately, after a brutal announcement via email and access to Slack internal messaging disabled.
In this context, this decision should cause significant changes in the organization of the company, and more specifically in the 90 countries where WordPress currently operates…
A "restructuring" to prepare for the future
If this announcement comes at a time when the economic context is very unfavorable, Matt Mullenweg sees this operation as an opportunity to become "more agile and responsive", in order to reconnect with its beginnings.
Indeed, in his post, the CEO speaks more of "restructuring", with the ambition of developing new online services around WordPress. If, for the moment, Matt Mullenweg has not yet communicated on the upcoming developments that the company could experience, which worries professionals in the digital world.
Moreover, this restructuring comes after Automattic decided to cancel the "Grand Meetup", an event organized each year by the company to announce its upcoming developments. As artificial intelligence continues to progress with very promising announcements for web development, it is possible that the company will further integrate this technology into its tools...
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