Automattic Receives $50M Secondary Investment from Tiger Global Management

According to founder Matthew Mullenweg (read here), Automattic, the company behind WordPress, received an about $50m secondary investment from Tiger Global Management.

The transaction was led by Lee Fixel at Tiger Global.

As explained in a post, the secondary transaction meant that the earliest investors or employees sold stock to Tiger Global versus money going into the company.

Matthew Mullenweg said that there was no need for the company to raise money directly. He added that:

The minority of stockholders that elected to participate are holding on to the vast majority of their shares. We’re building an independent company that’s going to be a growing part of the fabric of the web for many years to come, so allowing early investors to lock in some returns releases any short-term pressure there might be on the company for a liquidity event and allows us to focus fully on the long road ahead.

Led by CEO Toni Schneider and Mullenweg, San Francisco, CA-based Automattic currently over 150 employees, including nearly 130 who are focused on product development and support. They expect to grow to 200 people by the end of 2013 (read here).

FinSMEs

26/05/2013

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