Automattic, Makers Of WordPress, Will Generate $45 Million In Revenue

Sites include automattic.com , WordPress.com . Published on May 10th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

WordPress has been in the tech news of late for some big numbers regarding its usage and spread among website developers, but very little has been revealed about the financials of the company until now.

The blogging platform as you may know is run by Automattic, which in a nutshell is the for-profit engine behind the entire operation. WordPress continues to be 100% free but on the back of its popularity Automattic is reporting revenues of $45 million. The disclosure was made by WordPress founder and creator Matt Mullenweg during a recent interview.

The revelation that the operation will make so much money this year underscores the gains that the platform has made in the last few years. As noted recently on Tech Crunch, WordPress is used to power over 70 million websites and many big name companies use it—including of course, Tech Crunch.

So far Automattic has been funded to the tune of $30.6 million and in what can be seen as a clear intent to raise more capital, Mullenweg (company president) has appointed Stuart West as CFO. He’s also added Paul Sieminski who will serve as the company’s top lawyer.

WordPress has been quite a success operating on the ‘free’ model and $45 million in revenues is a testament that it does work.