Automattic turns down aquisition offer
Techcrunch.com is running a story called Automattic Spurns $200 Million Acquisition Offer where it's revealed that Automattic has turned down a large acquisition offer from a yet unknown source. I made a rather long winded comment on it, but decided that this warranted a post of its own here on my site, so here it is in its whole glory:
As interesting as this might be, the speculation is regarding Automattic and Wordpress.com not the Wordpress codebase. There is, or at least should be, a difference there.
Claiming this as “A great confirmation to the open source business model.” as Tim does above doesn’t really hold water though, as wordpress.com isn’t open source. The service is based on open source software, but Wordpress.com isn’t open source in itself. Sure, some of the work being done by Automattic trickles back to the Wordpress code base but thats being done on a case-by-case basis.
Everyone could potentially set up a service like Wordpress.com, based on any given open source platform, and make a bundle on it. While I applaud entrepreneurs who are able pull it off like this, this doesn’t have much to do with open source as much as it has to do with timing and providing a service people want.
In many ways, Wordpress.com isn’t much more open source than Facebook is, the only real difference is that the core service on Wordpress.com is based on a open source platform.
In my view this even further highlights the problem with differentiating Wordpress.com/Automattic (the business side) and Wordpress.org (The open source project).
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Published October 30, 2007 11:30
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Tagged with aquisiton, automattic, featured, web and Wordpress
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2007-10-30 19:53:51
I don’t know anything about any acquisition offer, but I do heartily disagree with your post.
First, I ask what is your goal of this post, and what concerns or frustrations are really at the heart of venom?
Our success is indeed a great confirmation to a business with open source participation at its core.
Trickles back to WordPress? If you have a bone to pick, be straight about it. WordPress and WordPress.com are continuously being synced. It exposes a ton o’ bugs in the software, and that benefits every one.
I don’t know who suggested to you it is a case by case basic. That isn’t true. In fast that would be stupid of us, as it would create maintenance burden and risk code quality.
The business side is all to do with the execution. You are correct that anyone with the knowledge, experience, passion and dedication our team has could do the same thing. It is all about the execution.
You are also correct that open source means a lot more than just releasing code using an open source license. Myself and many members of the team wouldn’t sleep well if we didn’t feel we were living up to our potential in trying to influence the world to move towards free culture.
2007-10-30 23:20:22
Lloyd, there is no venom anywhere. I’ve been reading and re-reading my post above, and I’m having a hard time identifying which parts could be interpreted as venomous.
You ask what my goal with the post is, and that is indeed very simple. In fact, the last line of it summarizes why sentiments regarding Wordpress.org and Wordpress.com/Automattic:
I have mentioned this before, if you would take the time to read my post explaining why I migrated away from Wordpress you would see that there is a whole section there outlining the exact same sentiments as in my post above (It’s under the Lack of distinction/separation between .org and .com header.
As I also mention in that post, I feel that Wordpress has moved from being a community driven effort, to a business idea driven by the needs of Automattic. I have no problems with Automattic, or anyone else for that matter, making money of Open Source projects. If someone thinks thats my problem, they are mistaken as this is a position I have made clear on several occasions. I just feel that the lack of seperation between the two muddies the waters to such an extent that it is hard to tell the difference between them. I have yet to see a clear distinction between the two, can you point out anything that explains it to me?
I do find it a bit funny that Toni states that “Open source = decentralized software development”> given the current development model.
As I see it, the “Wordpress.org community” provides little more than free bug fixes for Automattic. Of course, it provides Wordpress.com with a close to endless supply of themes and third party plugins that can be included on wordpress.com too. It must feel great to have a business model that relies on the work of a unpaid work force. Thats also the case for support issues, after all support on .org works well for some issues on .com as well. Now, I know a lot of people make good money of work related to Wordpress. Be it custom development/theme work or otherwise, and as always I commend people that are able to monetize their services in such a manner. After all, I do that myself to with the Gallery project.
The current development of Wordpress (the software) seems to be dictated by Automattic with code being rolled in to the core without much, or any, community discussion at all. We all know how well that worked with tagging.
Other issues are the back end changes that are being done, Akismet is hardly open source now is it? Well, of course, the plugin for Wordpress is, but the backend is securely hosted at Automattic without any public scrutiny at all. The plugin repository is a another one, so is the update notification. I’m not the only one criticizing Automattic for this.
You cannot claim that wordpress.com is open source, just because the service core is based on open source software. That’s why I find it a flawed argument that wordpress.com is a shining beacon for open source as a business model.
Now, to your comment(s). I can’t help but notice that there are slight variations between the comment you made here, and the comment you left on Techcrunch.
Would you be so kind to explain why “Could we do it without the WordPress.org community? Who knows, but many members of the team wouldn’t be interested in finding out.” was included in the TC comment, but left out here? Are your comments based on the perceived audience? Also, should I read into that particular statement that some of the members would be interested in finding out? If so, that is indeed interesting.
For my own part, using Wordpress was fun. It powered this site for a couple of years but the fun faded. Why? Because the community surrounding it changed when Automattic came to the table. For me, personally, open source is about having fun and being able to contribute. I left it behind because it no longer felt like something I wanted to be a part of.
2007-10-30 23:23:25
Oh, I forgot. I don’t care if the acquisition rumors are true or not, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. What I care about is that people know the difference between Wordpress.com/Automattic and Wordpress.org (The software).
2007-11-03 18:09:49
$200 million? woah… Seems like a lot for something “open source”
2007-11-05 21:25:31
I previously had read Why no Wordpress, and go Habari as you can see in the comments there. I really appreciated the thoughtful and balanced post, but here it seems something is eating you.
Do I think WordPress development and product are ideal? No, and if I did, I would likely move onto something else. As long as things are moving forward, I’m eager to participate — I like hard problems, and WordPress being so popular and having such diverse participates provides awesome challenges.
> As I see it, the “Wordpress.org community” provides
> little more than free bug fixes for Automattic.
That’s the venom I was referring to, and is absolutely ridiculous. WordPress directly benefits.
Having read every bug report created in the last year, WordPress has a huge number of diverse participants.
There are some great points in your response, but the aggressive nature of your response leaves me not wanting to continue this conversation. If you are interested in having a polite conversation, you know where to reach me.
2007-11-05 23:02:39
Well, I tried hard to not sound venomous if I did, I apologize. And I certainly did not mean to be aggressive at all.
I’ll be the first to admit that my issues with this probably has no bearing, but my feelings are still that Wordpress has shifted from being a community driven effort to being driven by the needs of Automattic. Maybe it’s just me, but that ultimately drove me away from using Wordpress and over to Habari which actively endorses community efforts.
I’ll discontinue my rants here though, as nothing good can come out of this as you misread me as being agressive and clearly don’t want to continue the conversation. I wish you all good luck with Wordpress and Automattic, I just wish that there was a clearer seperation between the two entities and that wordpress.org was indeed a community project.
2007-11-05 23:29:56
Lloyd, having a diverse number of participants report bugs doesn’t make WordPress open development, IMVHO. Using the term WordPress as a blanket coverage to both the .com entity and the .org entity is a cop out, again in my most humble opinion.
Perhaps you should read this article on when open source closes the process, and you might see where some people are coming from.
2007-11-05 23:40:04
When I use the term WordPress, I’m referring to the installable, open source package, most often found on http://WordPress.org .
I probably won’t have named our hosted service, WordPress.com, but I wasn’t around then, nor do I have any expertise in that area, so I ride with it.
I still don’t understand what is meant by putting the needs of Automattic first? What would are motivation be? What specifically about WordPress reflects this?
2007-11-05 23:55:19
miklb, having a diverse number of participants report bugs wouldn’t make WordPress open development in my opinion either.
Bug report, includes enhancement, it includes the designs being discussed and the code being submitted and committed. That is a diverse group of open source participants, and only my small window into the participation.
2007-11-06 00:01:57
“Linux.com :: When open source projects close the process, something’s wrong” is an interesting read, though I’m sure that there is more to each story, and that neither project is as closed as that story suggests.
Diversity in what open source means to people and how they make it fit into their pursuits is an important part of seeing open source be successful. We all win as long as we are sharing.
I’ve failed to live my own advice numerous times, but I still try not to beat up the good people.
2007-11-06 00:04:23
Christian, I think you are correct in focusing on you are getting out of your participation what you are looking for, it being fun.
I think Habari and any project your contribute to is clearly better for having you involved.
2007-11-06 00:04:59
Lloyd, you are right. This is fruitless, and certainly doesn’t get us anywhere. Lets just leave it at this and I’ll refrain from further commenting on Wordpress/Automattic as I no longer have a personal interest in it.