WordPress Maker Automattic eliminates 16% of staff

AutomatedThe company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce and a number of other online services reduces its workforce. Redundancies will affect 16% of staff between departments, The Automattic Blog Post published on Wednesday reveals.

Prior to the redundancies, Automattic’s website listed 1,744 employees, which means north of 270 people may have lost their job. (Automattic was asked to confirm this number but did not respond from the time of the publication.)

The position, which was also shared with company employees via Slack earlier on Wednesday, explains that this “restructuring” was necessary because of the competitive nature of the market and the speed at which technology evolves.

However, the move also comes after a noisy year for Automattic, which has been involved in a controversial legal battle with the hospitality of WP Engine. The ongoing drama has already led to departure of some autumn automatic employees last autumn. At CEO of Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, the hospitality of Provider WP Engine did not contribute sufficiently to the open source WordPress.org project and the use of the “WP” brand confuses consumers to affiliate WordPress.

In Wednesday’s announcement, Mullenweg explained that recently announced redundancies will allow the automatic to become “more flexible and sensitive”, “break silos that have created ineffectiveness”, “focusing on product quality” and “ensure a viable economic model”.

“To support our customers and products, we need to improve our productivity, profitability and ability to invest,” says the post, compiled by Mullenweg.

The redundancies will affect employees in 90 countries, who will receive a retirement package and assistance for job placement, among others.

“Automattic has multiple products with worldwide abstraction opportunities at WordPress and beyond. I am sure we will get out of this situation better, ready to create a vibrant, profitable, well -designed company that will continue our mission to democratize the internet,” Mullenweg writes.

TechCrunch sources told us that redundancies were effective immediately, which means that people received an email and then immediately lost access to Slack. The redundancies include some long -term employees in the company for the northern decade, we understand.

The news follows Automattic’s cancellation of the annual company “Grand Meetup” for 2025, also a source told us.

Sarah Perez can be approached at @sarahperez.01 in Signal and sarahp@techcrunch.com