Wordpress (Automattic) value could be over $1 Billion after latest round

pocketrockets

pocketrockets

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Automattic raising more than $100 million - Fortune Tech

Automattic seeking to raise more than $100 million
By Erin Griffith

April 15, 2014: 4:33 PM ET

The round will value the company behind WordPress.com at north of $1 billion.


FORTUNE -- Automattic, the company that runs blogging platforms WordPress.com and WordPress VIP, is out raising between $100 million and $150 million in new venture capital funding, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

The round values the company at more than $1 billion and would be a slight step up from its valuation in September 2013. At the time, Tiger Global Management and Iconiq invested $75 million in a secondary transaction, which was mostly used to buy shares from early investor Polaris Partners. Just a few months prior, Tiger had invested $50 million in a separate secondary round.

But this deal would be new equity, adding to Automattic's $30.6 million in total equity funding. Automattic declined to comment on any fundraising activity.

WordPress now powers 22% of the world's websites, up from 19% last July. For example, around half of the sites hosted by GoDaddy are powered by WordPress. Automattic offers a layer of services on top of WordPress, and has introduced curation and editorial elements into its platform. The company employs four editors and is defending its users against take-down notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Last week, Automattic acquired content site Longreads.

Company founder Matt Mullenweg took the helm as CEO in January, after previously serving in a product-centric role. In an interview with Fortune several weeks ago, Mullenweg said his transition was always planned, as he had wanted to be older and more experienced before making the switch (he's now 30 years old).

Expect that Automattic would use some of the new funds to fend off challenges from rivals like Squarespace, which today announced $40 million in new funding from General Atlantic (bringing its total funds raised to $78.5 million). Or Medium, the blogging platform led by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.
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Whatever the fuck happened to companies just being profitable?

Nowadays it's all about how much funding you can get.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
Whatever the fuck happened to companies just being profitable?

Nowadays it's all about how much funding you can get.
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I've wondered the same thing. Could it be the fear of another bubble? Rapid innovators taking your piece of the pie?
 
I think this company actually makes money though through the paid anti spam plugin and hosted wordpress sites.
 
I'm actually completely surprised that wordpress is not many multiples more. These bullshit companies for broke teens are going for a few bil all the time now, while Wordpress is a platform that has huge amounts of actual business owners (i.e $$) integrated into it, and is the platform of choice for 22% of the world.
 
pocketrockets said:
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serious question about the moat. That looks like the least secure castle of all times. It would be nothing to take a few rafts across (to avoid the crocodiles) and hide out in the woods. The peasants could pickoff the kings forces one by one, simply stalking them from the islands woods. A few well placed shots from the bows-man and the men guarding the wall will be done. After that it's game over. Now they can take the bridge and go over the wall and capture, and kill the king. Nope that castle is a security nightmare.
 
Really something to consider, however. When was the last time you crossed a mote to get somewhere? That might be a clue of sorts in this case.
 
If you were living in a place like that and were concerned about attackers, you'd place pickets(guards) at advantageous visibility points. When someone appeared to be building watercraft, you'd put bowmen close to that location.

Same shit, different world and technologies.
 
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