Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, is laying off about 16 percent of its employees. In a note posted on the company’s website, CEO Matt Mullenweg says he is making these changes to “protect Automattic’s long-term future.”
Prior to the layoffs, Automattic’s website stated that the company had 1,777 employees. Since then, the company has reduced the number of employees to 1,495, which means that the layoffs affected about 280 employees.
Last year, third-party hosting company WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg after the company blocked WP Engine on the WordPress.org server and took over its Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin. Mullenweg said that the litigation could last for years and “could potentially bankrupt me or lead to the closure of WordPress.org.”
In October, Mullenweg offered his employees $30,000 or six months’ salary to quit if they did not agree with his decision to start a public dispute with WP Engine. After the first round of buyouts, Automattic lost about 8.4 percent of its workforce.
“We have reached an important crossroads,” Mullenweg writes in his note. “While our revenues continue to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market and technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace. To support our customers and products, we must improve our productivity, profitability and ability to invest.”
