In October, San Francisco tech company Automattic saw a dramatic shakeup , with CEO Matt Mullenweg offering his employees $30,000 each if they promptly agreed to quit. Now, a chunk of the staff that declined the offer are being shown the door.
Wednesday, Mullenweg announced that he’s laying off 16% of Automattic’s workforce in an email to employees now published online. He didn’t reveal a specific number of cuts, but the company’s listed headcount on its website dropped this week by 279, to 1,495.
His email said Automattic, which owns web hosting site WordPress.com as well as Tumblr, Longreads and other apps and WordPress-related tools, is at a “crossroads.” Mullenweg wrote that Automattic’s revenue is growing, but implied that a “highly competitive market” and rapid technological evolution are forcing his hand…