List of Major WordPress Acquisitions & Investments So Far!
The WordPress ecosystem is growing rapidly, and it would appear that a number of companies are making strategic acquisitions to grow their offerings.
These acquisitions-from the likes of key players like WP Engine and Awesome Motive to new entrants-reshape the tools and services we use in building WordPress websites.
In this post, I'll take you through some of the biggest WordPress acquisitions to date, from 2021 through 2024, what they mean for you, and how they're changing the future of the platform.
TL;DR: Recent WordPress Acquisitions at a Glance
Here’s a quick look at the most significant WordPress acquisitions, starting with the most recent ones from 2024 and 2023:
| Acquisition Date | Acquired By | Acquired Company | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 18, 2024 | WP Engine | NitroPack | Performance Optimization |
| July 9, 2024 | Awesome Motive | BuddyBoss | Community & Membership |
| October 5, 2023 | Awesome Motive | Envira Gallery, NextGen Gallery | Gallery Plugins |
| August 15, 2023 | Group One | BackWPup | Backup Plugin |
| June 14, 2023 | One Equity Partners | Liquid Web | Hosting Provider |
| May 30, 2023 | Group One | Rank Math | SEO Plugin |
| May 2, 2023 | MemberPress | WishList Member | Membership Plugin |
| March 13, 2023 | Automattic | ActivityPub for WordPress | Social Media Integration |
| February 28, 2023 | Awesome Motive | WP101 | WordPress Tutorials |
| January 23, 2023 | Awesome Motive | Thrive Themes | Themes & Conversion |
| January 5, 2023 | Awesome Motive | Duplicator | Migration Plugin |
| July 2022 | Elementor | Strattic | Static Site Generator |
| September 2021 | Jetpack (Automattic) | Social Image Generator | Social Media Tools |
The Biggest WordPress Acquisitions You Should Know About
1. WP Engine Acquires NitroPack
- Acquisition Date: July 18, 2024
- Category: Performance Optimization
- Overview: WP Engine is a major managed WordPress hosting company, and it has just acquired NitroPack-a plugin for website speed optimization.
NitroPack supports websites in increasing their performance by offering a variety of tools like caching, image optimization, among others. This acquisition thus seals WP Engine's position in the provision of faster website solutions.
My Take: NitroPack is one of the fan favorites for increasing website speeds amongst WordPress users, and this acquisition by WP Engine reflects that they want more from this area. I personally think this is great news for users where speed and performance matter most on the sites.
2. Awesome Motive Acquires BuddyBoss
- Acquisition Date: July 9, 2024
- Category: Community & Membership
- Overview: Awesome Motive, the parent company of WPBeginner has acquired BuddyBoss – a platform to sell memberships, build social networks, and create online communities.
The acquisition further cements the roster that Awesome Motive has in the community-building space by offering one of the most powerful interactive website builders.
3. Awesome Motive Acquires Envira Gallery & NextGen Gallery
- Acquisition Date: October 5, 2023
- Category: Gallery Plugins
- Overview: Awesome Motive continued its acquisition streak with the purchase of Envira Gallery and NextGen Gallery – two of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins.
With this acquisition, it places image management and the creation of galleries into Awesome Motive's ever-expanding portfolio of WordPress tools.
4. Group One Acquires BackWPup
- Acquisition Date: August 15, 2023
- Category: Backup Plugin
- Overview: Group One, a leading player within the WordPress hosting space, acquired a backup plugin called BackWPup, known to help users back up their websites automatically in WordPress. With this acquisition, Group One strengthens its offerings in backup and maintenance.
5. One Equity Partners Acquires Liquid Web
- Acquisition Date: June 14, 2023
- Category: Hosting Provider
- Overview: Liquid Web is one of the largest managed hosting providers for WordPress and has been acquired by a private equity firm called One Equity Partners.
It further supports the future growth of Liquid Web by scaling in the hosting space and offering solutions for high-performance websites.
6. Group One Acquires Rank Math
- Acquisition Date: May 30, 2023
- Category: SEO Plugin
- Overview: Rank Math, one of the leading WordPress SEO plugins, was acquired by Group One. With this acquisition, Group One will further enhance its offering toward website optimization by introducing extra integrated SEO tools.
7. MemberPress Acquires WishList Member
- Acquisition Date: May 2, 2023
- Category: Membership Plugin
- Overview: In a nutshell, MemberPress is one of the favorite membership plugins available for WordPress. The company behind it just acquired WishList Member, another tool for creating membership sites.
With this acquisition, MemberPress is in a commanding position to dominate the membership site market and give more features to users who seek to build exclusive content websites.
8. Automattic Acquires ActivityPub for WordPress
- Acquisition Date: March 13, 2023
- Category: Social Media Integration
- Overview: Automattic has acquired the ActivityPub plugin, a plugin that allows WordPress blogs to connect with the Fediverse-a decentralized social network. This acquisition enables WordPress users to syndicate their content across the Fediverse, opening up a whole new dimension of possibilities in blog visibility.
9. Awesome Motive Acquires WP101
- Acquisition Date: February 28, 2023
- Category: WordPress Tutorials
- Overview: Awesome Motive, one of the leading sources of WordPress tutorials, acquired WP101. The acquisition strategically positions Awesome Motive to continue to provide WordPress resources and education for beginners and expert users alike.
10. Awesome Motive Acquires Thrive Themes
- Acquisition Date: January 23, 2023
- Category: Themes & Conversion Tools
- Overview: Awesome Motive has acquired Thrive Themes, one of the largest WordPress theme and conversion-focused tool companies.
This acquisition will further establish Awesome Motive in the WordPress theme ecosystem and arm users with the resources necessary for bettering conversion rates.
11. Awesome Motive Acquires Duplicator
- Acquisition Date: January 5, 2023
- Category: Migration Plugin
- Overview: Awesome Motive has acquired Duplicator, a WordPress plugin used for migrating and backing up websites.
It is widely utilized to migrate websites from one host to another, making this acquisition yet another powerful tool in the arsenal at Awesome Motive.
Why Are WordPress Acquisitions So Common?
Acquisitions within the WordPress space have increased in the last few years as companies try to expand their offerings and gain an advantage over others.
For instance, a company can instantly enrich its product lineup with popular plugins and themes and attract more active users by acquiring such established plugins and themes. That's one fast way to grow and consolidate its market position.
- Speedier Product Development: Inning products rather than building from scratch saves the companies time and lays the foundation for them to leverage their customer bases that already exist.
- Broader Reach: Companies can extend into markets they weren't able to access previously by bringing together under one roof different tool types, such as SEO, membership, and security plugins.
What Do These Acquisitions Mean for the Future of WordPress?
As acquisitions begin to grow, we see WordPress companies moving toward more integrated solutions. It is a double-edged sword:
- Smarter Integrations: The consequence of many acquisitions is indeed far better integrations across plugins, themes, and services. Due to StudioPress, users of WP Engine now get robust themes, while thanks to Strattic, Elementor users can now enjoy static site generation.
- Risk of Price Hikes: The drawback with all this consolidation is that it tends to drive up pricing or restrict free features as companies grow bigger.
Wrapping It Up
We've seen massive growth in the WordPress ecosystem via acquisitions, leading the charge by Awesome Motive, WP Engine, and Automattic.
Be it improving performance with NitroPack or further building community-building features as with BuddyBoss, such acquisitions shape the future of WordPress.
Keep watching out, because for the first time, the platform is moving faster than ever, and I think all these moves will continue to bring powerful tools to WordPress users like ourselves.
That's it for this one. I'll keep on adding new WordPress Acquisitions in this post so do keep a check.
Which one was your predicted acquisition?
Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.
Until then,
Cheers,
Kuldeep – Your Elementor Guy
