Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, and WooCommerce, is letting go of about 282 employees—roughly 16% of its global staff. The decision, announced in late January 2025, follows months of internal restructuring and external pressure. CEO Matt Mullenweg described the move as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and sharpen the company’s focus on artificial intelligence and commercial products.
Automattic’s workforce has dropped from 1,777 to 1,495. Mullenweg emphasized that the layoffs were not performance-related.
In a company blog post, he stated: “I have had to make difficult decisions to protect Automattic’s long-term future. […] While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels. To support our customers and products, we must improve our productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest.”
This isn’t the first time Automattic has downsized in recent months. In October 2024, 159 employees accepted a voluntary exit offer of $30,000 or six months’ salary after Mullenweg invited staff to part ways if they didn’t agree with his leadership amid the growing legal conflict with WP-Engine, a leading competitor in the WordPress space.
Legacy Projects Pared Down
The cuts come alongside a broader strategy shift. Automattic is moving away from legacy platforms and experimental products that no longer align with its strategic focus. Tumblr, which had 139 employees in 2022, now runs with fewer than 10. The company says this shift is about reducing internal complexity and improving execution across fewer, higher-priority initiatives.
At the core of Automattic’s shifting direction is the ongoing legal dispute with WP Engine, a leading managed WordPress host. The conflict escalated in September 2024 when Mullenweg publicly denounced WP Engine at WordCamp, accusing the company of extracting value from the open-source ecosystem without giving back.
The situation worsened in October when Automattic forked WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, releasing its own version called Secure Custom Fields (SCF). ACF is widely used by developers to create customized backend fields in WordPress, allowing for more flexible and dynamic site configurations. The fork removed ACF’s commercial features.
WP Engine condemned the move as a hostile takeover. In December 2024, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against Automattic, ordering it to reverse the fork and reinstate WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org. The ruling found that Automattic’s actions had “disrupted WP Engine’s operations and marginalized the company within the WordPress ecosystem.”
Automattic downplayed the ruling as a procedural step but began scaling back its involvement in open-source initiatives. In a December 2024 blog post, Mullenweg described a temporary freeze on WordPress.org account registrations and plugin submissions as a needed holiday break.
Contributor Bans and Governance Fallout
The legal battle isn’t the only source of tension. In January 2025, Automattic suspended the WordPress.org accounts of several high-profile community contributors, including Yoast SEO founder Joost de Valk, digital rights advocate Heather Burns, and open-source executive Karim Marucchi. The move blocked them from participating in plugin development and governance discussions on the platform.
Mullenweg defended the suspensions by claiming that the individuals had been disruptive to the project’s goals. Burns, however, pushed back in public, calling the suspension “personal harassment.” Developer Michael Willman, who was also banned, has filed a legal motion seeking to establish an independent governance oversight board for WordPress.org, arguing that Automattic’s dual role as platform steward and commercial stakeholder creates a fundamental conflict of interest.
Willman wrote in the court filing: “This ban was retaliatory and inconsistent with the principles of fairness and transparency that the platform purports to uphold.” The filing seeks to formalize independent checks on Automattic’s governance power—an idea gaining traction as more community leaders express concern over centralization.
The governance crisis has also led to calls for a fork of the WordPress project. De Valk and Marucchi have publicly advocated for a new direction, and WP Engine has indicated its support, describing the situation as an opportunity to “reflect and to act.”
Developer Hours Slashed, Priorities Redefined
Automattic’s shift away from WordPress.org isn’t just philosophical—it’s quantifiable. In January 2025, the company reduced its weekly contribution hours to the open-source project from 3,988 to just 45. In doing so, Automattic signaled a decisive pivot away from its traditional community role and toward strengthening its commercial platforms like Jetpack, WooCommerce, and WordPress.com.
These reductions came shortly after the December injunction and the contributor bans. While Automattic claimed the scale-back was due to legal pressure, critics interpreted it as retaliation or at minimum, strategic withdrawal. WordPress.org temporarily suspended key free services such as plugin submissions and account creation, further fueling concerns over unilateral control.
Commerce, AI, and a Narrowing Path Forward
Despite the turmoil, Automattic is doubling down on its most monetizable services. Internally, Mullenweg stressed that the company needed to improve productivity, profitability, and their capacity to invest. The shift away from community-led development is being framed as a move to compete more aggressively in an industry dominated by hosted CMS platforms and AI-powered tooling.
Jetpack, for instance, is positioned as an AI-enhanced suite of site management and performance tools for WordPress users, while WooCommerce continues to gain ground in the e-commerce space. The strategy reflects a recalibration of priorities rather than retreat—a narrowing of scope designed to accelerate Automattic’s commercial ambitions.
Still, the backlash from the WordPress community and mounting legal scrutiny suggest that Automattic’s dual role—as both open-source steward and for-profit operator—is becoming harder to sustain. Whether the company can navigate this crossroads without further alienating its developer base remains an open question.
