Those of you who’ve followed my Tumblr over the years have probably come to expect a mix of travel photos and the occasional link to my WordPress blog. Well, today is different. I’m delighted to share that Automattic is acquiring Tumblr. 

Back in 2013, I reflected on how friendly the relationship has always been between WordPress.com and Tumblr, and on the exciting future I saw for web-publishing platforms like ours. In the intervening years, the Tumblr team has continued to impress me with their ability to create an intuitive publishing experience on desktop and on mobile, and to foster so many thriving, passionate communities. I have worked on WordPress my entire adult life — 16 years now — and so the democratization of publishing is near and dear to my heart. Tumblr and WordPress have always been very philosophically aligned there.

When the possibility to join forces became concrete, it felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have two beloved platforms work alongside each other to build a better, more open, more inclusive – and, frankly, more fun web. I knew we had to do it.

Our teams are hard at work right now to make this transition smooth for everyone at Tumblr, and while we have many details to iron out, one thing we’re absolutely committed to is to preserve the passion and sense of community that so many people around the world – and all over the web – have come to associate with Tumblr. 

In the underlying technology of our platforms, I think there are some good opportunities to standardize on the Open Source WordPress tech stack, but the front-end user experience on Tumblr will evolve on its own path. It has been so successful already, and we want to keep that going. The Tumblr team also has some exciting functionality they’re eager to unlock once we close the acquisition officially in a few weeks…

I look forward to working with everyone from Tumblr as we welcome them to Automattic, and I can’t wait for us to build great products together.

In the meantime, I now need to dig through my closet to find a certain old t-shirt, last seen around 2010…