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Restructuring Announcement
- refuser 2y agoNot especially surprising, but there’s an awfully large elephant in the room that likely directly contributed to this necessity that goes completely unmentioned.
- uoaei 2y agoIs the elephant in the room with us now? (Mind filling in?)
- maccard 2y agohttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2y7eyp3zpo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2y7eyp3zpo
- 65 2y agoMatt Mullenweg is the elephant.
- wiether 2y agoSince Matt regularly comments here, and given the expression chosen; I'm pretty certain that they know who the elephant is.
- chris_wot 2y agoMatt commenting here was part of the reason he is in the mess he is in.
- foobarchu 2y agoHis account has been inactive for almost all of 2025, I think his legal team must have taken away the password.
- lolinder 2y agoHe has alts he uses that are probably still active.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- alphager 2y agoThe legal threats against WPEngine and their customers, the lawsuits between WP/Automatic/WPF and WPEngine, the banning of several contributors, the takeover of WP Plugins on WP.org, the shenanigans with several check boxes on the login pages of WP.org.
- Analemma_ 2y agoWhile it wasn't as damaging from a legal or (business) reputational perspective, he also peeked into the Tumblr database in order to doxx people who were making fun of him, which doesn't say great things about his stability or fitness to run a company.
- bananapub 2y agothe author of that email has been having a very public breakdown for months now, mostly consisting of being a prick and trying to harm the community and a competitor.
- xd1936 2y agohttps://mullenweg.wtf/ https://mullenweg.wtf/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241026031947/https://bullenweg.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241026031947/https://bullenweg...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mgdev 2y agoMatt's only real problem is not owning his ambition openly. Trying to publicly argue the moral high ground was a stupid, unforced error. It didn't need to be moralized at all. Just make the changes you want to make, piss off a vocal minority, then get back to winning and making boatloads of money by executing exceptionally. The problem, I suspect, is that Matt values how certain people perceive him more than he values winning. It's unfortunate, because he's clearly a very good executer and strategist. He's getting in his own way.
- KennyBlanken 2y agoIMHO moralizing wasn't really the problem. The extremely erratic behavior, the ego, the fixation with vengeance, harassing organizations legally using the Wordpress name, abusing his power at the wordpress foundation, using it to punish Automattic competitors... He pissed off a lot of people, but worse: he made a lot of people nervous.
- reshlo 2y agoIf more people valued how others perceive them more than they valued winning, the world would be a better place.
- mgdev 2y agoHe should care principally about his customers. That's it.
- bravetraveler 2y agoIgnore the financial valuations, man is a worm. I'd call him a 'hack' but that might imply talents given where we are. Through his shitshow, he tried - and failed - to curry favor with an OSS puppet. Not any particular software... like one might think, but the whole "thing". There was never any moment where WPEngine was beholden for offering WordPress services. Everything was strained to the point he was trying to redefine OSS. He got in his way, ours as members of the public, and that of WPEngine. Repeatedly... and I don't see enough reflection/reason from Matt to believe this will change. Personally, I'd hesitate to promote his strategies or skills. Hamfisted is a better message. Or none, take the wind away. We don't want his ambition or to hear about it. It's demonstrably shit. Edit: just in case this needs saying, I've never been affiliated with either company. Don't waste your limited time looking for me, Matt.
- solardev 2y agoDrupal's sudden popularity?
- zem 2y agoon the positive side, it's a small thing monetarily, but retention of company laptops is a nice goodwill gesture
- bmulholland 2y agoEh, from the company's perspective this is logistically easiest--the laptop's value is hardly worth the effort.
- zem 2y agoa lot of companies ask for equipment to be returned due to security concerns, or just on principle
- igleria 2y agoklarna allowed us to buy our work phone and macbook paying only the tax value. We had to give them the devices so they would be wiped out by a third party, then they mailed them to my home.
- runako 2y agoThis is a G move, without a doubt the best way I've heard of this being done.
- OptionOfT 2y agoMacBooks and iPhones are amongst the easiest to wipe remotely. You can wipe them fully (which would be the recommendation for MacBooks) and remove just work-installed apps on an iPhone.
- kstrauser 2y agoAbsolutely. I was in charge of that at a previous job, and telling Jamf to nuke the device did the job the next time it was turned on.
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- sidcool 2y agoThis is well handled.
- mrcwinn 2y agoTough break for Matt Mullenweg, who unfortunately was caught up in this reduction in force. I am sure this unexpected change will afford him new opportunities. Wishing him the best!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- anthomtb 2y ago> This restructuring will result in an approximately 16% workforce reduction Probably the most salient detail for non-Automattic employees. Everything else was generic fluff.
- blatantly 2y agoPlus severance will be paid but didn't say how much. I was thinking this is a boilerplate firing email though!
- duskwuff 2y agoI wonder if it's better or worse than the voluntary termination deal they offered to employees last year (first 6 months, then 9 months pay).
- lsinger 2y agoMuch worse.
- beaucollins 2y agoIt’s worse. Max I’m seeing is 9 weeks.
- duskwuff 2y agoYikes. Meanwhile, the people who took the buyout last year got 6 months (or 9 if they waited for the second round).
- Jare 2y ago> how much With so many countries and legal frameworks to comply with, there's never going to be a single answer for this.
- beaucollins 2y agoIt’s looking like countries with better worker protections saw zero layoffs.
- FlamingMoe 2y agoMentioning "our revenue continues to grow" seems quite out of place in an announcement like this.
- Arainach 2y agoI disagree - it's not properly addressed, but it's nice to see it at least brought up. Layoffs are always awful, but seeing companies talk about "changing economic realities" amongst continuing revenue and profit growth - often all time highs - is a real morale killer for those who are left behind. Microsoft/Amazon/Alphabet/Google are trillion dollar megacorps who are insanely profitable, but they're firing people because they no longer have to pretend we care about you at all and will instead try to cater to Wall Street (who will never be happy - if I had $10000 for every quarter where a big tech corp "beat expectations" and the stock dropped anyway I'd retire). It's a hard pill to swallow and will increase bitterness and cynicism in the remaining workforce and kill any chance of your employees caring about your vision or putting in any extra effort.
- fwip 2y agoI might agree with you, if the "why we're making changes" section had listed even one reason to lay people off.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dylan604 2y agoOur revenue continues to grow, and will be even more profitable as we lay off 16% of the employees. The tone being set is not a good one to be sure.
- onli 2y agoAre they being profitable? Didn't automattic take venture capital somewhat recently, suggesting that's not the case?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- chris_wot 2y agoThis might not have happened if Mullenweg hadn’t sued his competitor, then went off the deep end and hurt everyone.
- 1shooner 2y agoAnother interpretation would be a common cause for both this and the litigation, i.e. pressure to improve financials.
- chris_wot 2y agoThat's an unbelievably terrible course of action. If you have financial issues, don't try to get out of it by litigation. Only litigate if you absolutely have to, and you have been wronged. Don't do it because you are trying to improve your bottom line.
- ceejayoz 2y agoIt may also have been part of his reason for doing so. Panic/desperation.
- DannyBee 2y agoI think this is a bit unfair. Who among us can really say they haven't gone off the deep end, burned every drop of good will that ever existed towards them and their projects, sued a competitor and got hilariously burned by the judge, all while burning hundreds of millions of your companies value (blackrock marked them down 10%, which is 750 million) This is just a normal thing that happens. It could have happened to anyone.
- lenerdenator 2y agoGiven what I know of the situation (which admittedly isn't much), wouldn't the best course of action be to shitcan the CEO?
- wmf 2y agoWith apologies to Louis XIV, Matt is Automattic.
- lenerdenator 2y agowait, did he put his name in the company name? if so, that's what we in the narcissist-identifying business call a "tell".
- duskwuff 2y ago> wait, did he put his name in the company name? Yes.
- Jare 2y agoOr it just sounded like a fun joke for a good company name... I mean you are not wrong, but pretty much any successful young entrepreneur must have some degree of excessive appreciation for themselves, and this one was already achieving that status at 19.
- groby_b 2y agoKnowing a number of successful entrepreneurs, many having hit success early as well - most don't need to enshrine themselves in the company name. It is indeed a tell. If that wasn't enough of a tell, his behavior in the last few months spelled it out clearly, circled the relevant parts with a big fat red marker, and installed a blinking neon sign saying "narcissist".
- em-bee 2y agoi don't think that is how a tell works. of course now we know. hindsight and all that. to decide whether it is actually a tell, we need to look at statistics of company names containing references to the owners/founders and their behavior. and i don't think that statistic bears out. naming your company after yourself is the traditional thing to do. "automattic" is just on the more clever side. the tradition is changing only because it is becoming more and more popular to name your company after the product you are selling. now, putting your name into the product name, that maybe could be a tell. but even here there are exceptions: debian for example.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- phendrenad2 2y agoI wonder if the CEO throwing a tantrum that another company was using "their" open-source (thus, not theirs) code wasn't the real problem, but it made investors take a closer look, and they noticed that Automattic has less of a moat then they thought.
- Kye 2y agoThere's a parallel timeline where he admitted he messed up, stepped down, hired a real CEO, put someone else in charge of the nonprofit, and the downward slide he caused started to reverse.
- kstrauser 2y ago> They also have our enduring gratitude for their time with the company. I hope the RIF'd employees can pay rent with that gratitude. If I were considering using Wordpress for anything, which I am not, this would end those plans. If they're laying off and keeping the CEO, they must be in dire financial straits. That message says "we're doing all the right things and have good leadership with a track record of making good decisions, but we have no alternative but to fire a sixth of our employees". That's not a good sign.
- melbourne_mat 2y agoFrom an alternate universe: I apologize for my erratic behavior which has tarnished our brand and created unnecessary turmoil within our organization. Regrettably, we will need to implement a 16% reduction in headcount to address the financial challenges we now face. I have decided to step aside and hand over control to my deputy, who I believe will provide the steady leadership needed to rebuild trust and restore our company's vision.
- heavymetalpoizn 2y ago[dead]
- solardev 2y agoIf only we had real leaders...
- facile3232 2y agoYou can trust me, facile3232, instead. I will improve upon all things the leader of automattic.com failed to improve upon.
- systemswizard 2y agoYou got this random internet stranger
- animuchan 2y agoThis messaging is compelling. Are you also perchance against all bad things, and in favor of all good things?
- ike2792 2y agoYou can't just say "perchance."
- joquarky 2y agoWe do, but the sociopaths outcompete them.
- gregoryl 2y agoHuh. >> There are no layoffs plans at Automattic, in fact we're hiring fairly aggressively and have done a number of acquisitions since this whole thing started, and have several more in the pipeline. https://old.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1hxnh73/automattic_will_reduce_its_contributions_to/m6ffola/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1hxnh73/automatt...
- pityJuke 2y agoHow infuriating for anyone recently hired caught in this trap. It seems to me the obvious, from both a business & human perspective, is to stop hiring at first signs of trouble, before layoffs. To do so otherwise is cruel. I doubt Matt had zero idea about this possibility two months ago.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoThose lacking empathy don’t know how to not be cruel. They keep filtering to the top unfortunately. Something that remains to be solved for.
- noisy_boy 2y agoThere is nothing to solve - you are in the game of capitalism (the American Edition) and the job is to maximise shareholder value. They are paid big bucks because they only work for that without empathy/cruelty or such emotions. The only way to solve is to change the game but that's next to impossible because most powerful players like it that way and will turn on anyone trying to change their fattening ways. The best part is that the pawns keep getting sacrificed and do nothing to change it; not only that, they refuse to support anyone trying to change the game to make their lives better. It's amazing.
- paradox460 2y agoThis will continue until there are actual consequences for those responsible. I'm of the mindset that any time a company does layoffs, they should start from the top And work down.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rob 2y ago"Either I'm an idiot, or something is going on that you don't understand. Let's check back in a month. :)" https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1glejno/comment/lvxuhaw/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1glejno/comment/... ...1 month later... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69221176/64/wpengine-inc-v-automattic-inc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69221176/64/wpengine-in...
- bionhoward 2y agoHR wranglers? Damn, that’s simultaneously hilarious and terrifying
- nightpool 2y agoHaven't seen any public reporting on this yet, but from internal conversations this seems to include a 60% workforce reduction at Tumblr, which now only has a few remaining engineers.
- IG_Semmelweiss 2y agoi dont mean to kick a dead horse, but a "few remaining engineers" for what is effectively an outdated clone of a microblogging site, a few engineers, seems like a lot still
- nightpool 2y agowhat microblogging site do you think Tumblr is a clone of? and outdated compared to what, exactly?
- treecrypto 2y agoI actually started paying the subscription for my Tumblr account a couple years ago. I don't get much direct benefit from it, I do it because it's the only social media site I use and enjoy, and I was hoping it would help keep it from shutting down. 60% workforce reduction is not great.
- donohoe 2y agoYeah, that’s my understanding as well
- zellyn 2y ago“While our revenue continues to grow,” Hard to read further than that…
- dccoolgai 2y agoSo if you took the deal last year you would have gotten 9 months, now the severance is 9 weeks. Way to reward "loyalty". Good thing we're so smart and better than everyone else and we don't need unions.
- hinkley 2y agoFinancially your best bet is to be in the 1st round of layoffs. Ego-wise, it's best to be in the second round. First round there's still some money and a lot of guilt, so the severance tends to be good. By the time they lay off truly essential people, you're burnt out, and you're lucky if you don't have to sue to get what you're owed by law, let alone whatever policy they had for paying out vacation time or what have you. You also get to enjoy a fun period of survivor guilt when they laid off people who you think have contributed as much or more than you have, and then know that you'll be next if they laid of <person> already.
- stefanfisk 2y agoYour also competing with fewer people when looking for a new job.
- phire 2y agoIMO, if there is any talk of "loyalty" in that first round of voluntary layoffs, you should always leave. Even if you were previously loyal, the company is changing and you won't like the results.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Centigonal 2y agoRelevant comment from 24 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43309837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43309837
- raspberry-eye 2y agoAI is eating the world.
- 16603366004 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- DeathArrow 2y ago>A comprehensive package covering severance pay and benefits. What does this mean in term of monthly wages? I was a technical lead for the Romanian branch of an US company. They fired me along with my team and other teams. The reason was they were profitable but they missed the ARR by a million or something. Last year they did the first firing round, this the second. When they announced they will fire us, they also announced they will hire more sales people. The ratio of business people/tech people was already 7:1 before that. They also said a programmer should produce 5 times the money the company spent with him, and we were at 4 point something. Now I have found a position at a local company which takes care of its people even in harder times.
- patcon 2y agoJudgement aside, I've gotta respect the humane way this org does layoffs. There's some slags in here about founder being "sociopath", but I'm just seeing a really humane founder with maybe some control issues. Trump, who betrays everyone for personal benefit, there's a sociopath. Mullenwag's just got some personality vices that served him as underdog, and didn't adapt to when he gained power
- emaro 2y agoI wonder what this means for the future of Beeper.
- fooqux 2y agoI'm wondering the same thing. Considering they were just acquired, I'm concerned. Especially since as far as I know, they still are operating under a free model.
- emaro 2y agoYes, however Automattic seems invested in the idea, since they also acquired Texts.com (which I didn't know before). So maybe the "universal chat app" is still part of their plan going forward? Still, I'm concerned too. But I guess only time will tell...
- bsima 2y agoI used to be a big admirer of Matt and Automattic, but after this whole WP Engine episode I've lost respect. I shut down my old wordpress blog, still working on importing the posts as org-mode files onto my new site, I no longer recommend WP to non-techies that ask me how to build a website. I hope WordPress (and Automattic) turn the ship around but its not looking good at this point.
- ssimpson 2y agoExecutive behaves like a child, labor suffers the consequences.
- huslage 2y agoThis comment thread is just hilarious. When a CEO of a VC-backed startup that you admire does things you disagree with, you find ways to justify their actions. When a CEO that is running an actually successful business and wishes to defend that business legally, you trash him. Be better.
- bravetraveler 2y agoMatt needs to be better, you're hilarious - he is the common denominator
- preezer 1y agoOkay, now I'm waiting until WP completely fucked themselves before I relaunch my site.