Tag: automattic

Automattic acquires WPAI, a startup that creates AI solutions for WordPress

Posted on by faz_business


WordPress hosting company Automattic said Monday that it is acquiring WPAI, a startup that builds AI solutions for WordPress, at an undisclosed price.

WPAI has some products such as CodeWP, a tool to use AI to create WP Plugins; AgentWP, an AI assistant for WordPress site builders; and WP Chat, which is an AI-powered chat for WordPress-related questions. WPAI noted on its blog that CodeWP and AgentWP will be discontinued in its current avatar and will be integrated within Automattic’s offering eventually.

Automattic noted that as part of the acquisition, the founding team will be joining the company to lead the efforts of AI features for WordPress.

“They’ll be working on testing, building, and integrating innovative AI solutions into the core ecosystem to redefine how users and developers work with WordPress,” Automattic said in an announcement.

Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg also separately announced the acquisition on his personal blog.

On its blog, WPAI said that the company’s focus will be on creating applied AI solutions for the WordPress ecosystem.

“This includes developing AI standards for WordPress, improving the platform’s core functionality, and creating tools that help users build and manage better websites. We’ll work closely with the WordPress community to thoughtfully implement these improvements while maintaining open-source values.,” the company said.

Over the past few years, Automattic has already launched a few AI tools to help users write better and succinct posts. Post the new acquistion, the startup will possibly focus on creating AI-powered developer and site building tools.

WPAI acquisition is Automattic’s second acquisition in two months. Last month, the company snapped up a Grammarly competitor for developers called Harper, which checks grammar locally on the device.

Both Automattic and Mullenweg are involved in a legal battle with rival WordPress hosting site WP Engine. The latter has accused Mullenweg of anti-competitive behavior. On the other hand, Mullenweg and Automattic have argued that WP Engine infringed the “WordPress” trademark and didn’t contribute enough to the ecosystem. The judge in the case indicated last month that the court would pass some primary injunction. However, specifics of the order have to be ironed out.

The owner of WordPress has bought Beeper, the app that flipped the bird to Apple’s iMessage supremacy

Posted on by faz_business


WordPress and Tumblr owner Automattic has bought Beeper, the maker of the Beeper Mini app that challenged Apple’s iMessage dominion late last year. Although it ultimately lost that battle (after, oh, about three days), the incident gave the DOJ more ammunition in its antitrust suit against the iPhone maker. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Automattic paid $125 million, a surprisingly hefty price for the startup.

Automattic already has an app called Texts that taps into the APIs of various chat services for a universal messaging experience. Beeper has essentially the same mission and branding, and the two competitors will now merge their teams under Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky, who will join Automattic.

You may also remember Migicovsky as the creator of the Pebble smartwatch, the charmingly simple pre-Apple Watch device that helped kickstart mainstream interest in wearable tech in the early 2010s. On Tuesday, he told The New York Times that Beeper and Texts will launch a combined service later this year. The two teams will reportedly begin work in two weeks during a meeting in Portugal.

On Tuesday, Migicovsky wrote in a blog post that the two companies go way back. “Matt [Mullenweg], Automattic’s CEO, and I have known each other for years,” he wrote. “He was an early user, supporter and investor in Beeper. We’re very well aligned on our goal (build the best chat app on earth), approach (open source where possible), and independence (Beeper will operate independently as part of Automattic’s Other Bets division).”

Automattic’s buying price is a bit of a head-scratcher, considering Beeper Mini’s claim to fame — iMessage integration on Android — was squashed after only a few days in the spotlight. Beeper framed the brief showdown as a fight for open, secure messaging standards. (It also helped the startup make more of a name for itself.) Apple saw it as a threat to one of its walled garden’s main attractions: the iPhone-to-iPhone chats’ blue bubbles with features like reactions and higher-resolution image and video-sharing.

Another reason to question Automattic’s acquisition price is Apple’s plan to bring RCS (rich communication services) support to iPhones later this year. Although the bubbles will remain green between iPhone and Android users, RCS chats replicate much of the iMessage appeal with a similar feature set, including end-to-end encryption.

Automattic’s interim chief executive, Toni Schneider, told The NYT that he sees the regulatory tradewinds blowing in a more open direction that will favor cross-platform, universal messaging apps like Beeper. Still, from my understanding, tapping into other services’ APIs is something the right coders could easily duplicate (including the Texts team Automattic already owned). Perhaps the real main attraction was the brand Beeper built for itself in taking on Apple.