[rglover]

Rooted in speculation about why this meltdown occurred in the first place: be very careful about taking money, as well as the amount and who from. My guess from day one is that Matt was put under pressure from investors and this was the only "fix" he saw.

A real shame to see such a great legacy flushed for zero ROI.

[lolinder]

I've often wondered if his emphasis on how private equity was ruining WordPress was him telegraphing his frustration with his own investors at Black Rock while technically abiding by his contract with them. It's interesting to consider that his performance could have been a type of malicious compliance with their demands—going so far overboard that he intentionally destroys the whole ecosystem as a kind of revenge.

It's probably more likely he just went nuts, but it's fun as a head canon.

[legitster]

> his own investors at Black Rock

Blackrock does not at all operate the same as a private equity and it's a huge pet peeve of mine when people lump them in together. Usually they are confusing Blackrock with Blackstone.

All Blackrock does is manage wealth and investments on behalf of individual clients. One of the ways they do this is by sticking private assets into funds for their clients. It's more akin to Vanguard than anything to do with private equity. There's no reason to believe BlackRock would be breathing down their necks when all they do is broker the funds on behalf of their clients.

Automattic DOES have private equity backers though like Tiger Global, Insight, ICONIQ, and more.

[jrflowers]

I like how confident this post is.

Blackrock absolutely has private equity operations which they do not hide even a little bit

> Private equity is a core pillar of BlackRock’s alternatives platform. BlackRock’s Private Equity teams manage USD$41.9 billion in capital commitments across direct, primary, secondary and co-investments.

https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/strategies/alte...

They also do more traditional asset management, but saying they “do not operate at all the same as a private equity” is like saying that Jack In The Box “does not operate at all like a taco place” despite the fact that you can buy a taco at every one of their locations.

[legitster]

> Our platform takes a holistic approach to investors’ private equity portfolios and is designed to offer strategies and solutions that align with client objectives and deliver persistent outperformance.

I get your point, but again, they are doing this on behalf of clients. And 49b is less than a percent of their holdings. So I would still think of them as a brokerage.

This would be like calling Uber a restaurant company just because they launched UberEats.

[rahimnathwani]

  they are doing this on behalf of clients

That's what all private equity firms do. They get paid to manage private equity funds. The managers don't usually put up most of the money. It comes from outside investors.

[chii]

> This would be like calling Uber a restaurant company just because they launched UberEats.

an apt comparison.

Some people dislike how ubereats operate.

The dislike of private equity is not unfounded, but also the problems don't actually stem from private equity at all, but from bad/misaligned incentives. People tend to want to assume that private equity buying a business will retain the same incentive as the original owners - but the reason why PE would buy a business is _because_ the original owners weren't being perfectly efficient (aka, stingy).

This has nothing to do with private equity per se, and has everything to do with capitalism at it's core.

[linotype]

$42 billion at Blackrock is nothing. They manage over ten trillion dollars.

[echoangle]

Shouldn’t you compare the sum to other private equity firms, not the rest of black rock? If they are a significant player in the space, I don’t think their other assets matter when saying that they operate in the space.

[pclmulqdq]

People often confuse BlackRock, an asset manager, with Blackstone, which is a private equity firm. However, I doubt Blackstone counts low enough to have bought part of Automattic. Blackstone also owns a considerable portion of BlackRock.

[daemin]

Which company whose name started with Black was the PMC in that case?

[vetrom]

That was Blackwater ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company) ), no relation.

[pclmulqdq]

Someone should found "BlackFire" and "BlackAir" to complete the ancient elements.

[lolinder]

Fair enough. /at Black Rock/d

[kbarmettler]

Thank you very much for this clarification!

[bravetraveler]

As amusing as that thought is... I think he could have done that without misrepresenting [the 'contracts' of] open source software so readily.

He stood to gain from this little knife twist, we all may still lose. Who knows what misconceptions were born/the downstream effects. WPEngine was never under any obligation to Matt himself/Automattic/WordPress/the Foundation [whatever distinction - if any - that may offer!]... outside of the license.

I don't believe it's a question of distance overboard, it started there! To quote Kendrick: "colonizer"

[wlonkly]

Matt has claimed[1] before to be "post-economic", i.e. has enough money that it doesn't matter to him anymore. It's hard not to see this as personal, not financial.

[1] https://x.com/sereedmedia/status/1839394786622722432

[xnx]

> It's hard not to see this as personal, not financial.

Despite not needing the money, Matt seemed to be very upset that WPEngine was making money.

[michaelcampbell]

What's the common thing people with more than enough money to spend want? "more"

[xnx]

After every possible need is met. Money becomes "points".

[hooverd]

In terms of cognitive impairment that's like being kicked in the head by a horse every day.

[avree]

That was before he made tons of horrible angel investments - https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/106035-94#exits you can see how many of his portfolio are out of business or near death.

[ceejayoz]

Isn’t that pretty normal for angel investments? It’s a numbers game.

[wlonkly]

No, it was this past September 26, in the middle of all of this.

[bawolff]

That sounds like what every person pretending to be rich but isn't as rich as they claim to be, says.

[chx]

had

WPEngine (and a horde of Emanuel Urquhart lawyers led by Rachel Kassabian) are taking him to the cleaners. This won't be pretty. A preliminary injunction is not easy to get, it's really likely WPEngine will win at least something.

[myst1c]

No, Matt is just a classic CEO exhibiting symptoms of narcissist personality disorder who's now getting served in court and doesn't realise how much he earned it.

[legitster]

Matt went on a Youtube channel last week to partake in a Wordpress speed building challenge, and he got frustrated several times using his own product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqY5bje8D2o

He spent years squashing anyone who complained about Gutenberg, and then he calls WPEngine a cancer and accuses them of offering an inferior version. All to find out that he's not even familiar!

[rglover]

Sure seems like it.

[myst1c]

I agree with the theory about him telegraphing the frustration with his investors through his accusations of the fight against "evil private equity." That is so, so typical. Enough accusations form a whole letter of confession with these kind of people.

[ookblah]

I dunno, I mean he could have applied the "fix" in a more cold and calculated method. Tons of PE companies out here doing the same and squeezing the stone without resorting to random personal attacks of those they disagreed with. Everything just had this air of pettiness to it instead.

[wmf]

The difference between an MBA and a hacker who lucked into a profitable business.

[taytus]

I would say, negative ROI at this point.