Michael Arrington has heard that Automattic has been offered a new round of financing. Most of it will go to the founders. Most of how much? Up to $50M. Michael doesn’t identify sources for this story, just as he didn’t for the earlier story that Automattic rejected a $200M buyout.
Actually, I’m less curious about sources than I am about founders. Who are the founders of Automattic? Matt, of course. I was fairly sure that Toni was not a founder, since Automattic already existed when he joined. A look through Toni’s archives shows that I was right, and that Andy, Donncha and Ryan were the other founders.
Meet the new financers, same as the old financers… the (up to) $50M comes from the same people who provided the first round of funding for Automattic. So the lead investor is Polaris, in the person of Mike Hirshland. He blogs as VC Mike at WordPress.com where, in April last year, he explained why Polaris invested in Automattic in the first place.
If the Arringtonian conjecture is correct – and I’d be surprised if it’s completely off the mark – congratulations to all concerned.
Valleywag have their own idea on how Arrington’s getting these stories, not of course that I’m suggesting Valleywag is a reliable source 😉
Thanks for the link to that bunch of waggers. I look forward to your own views on this issue – the cashout coup, that is, not so much the sources.