Private Equity Ruins Tech Companies

Short & sweet context post on WordPress drama -> Private Equity Ruins Tech Companies

Open source communities are particularly vulnerable to this model. They’re delicate ecosystems of volunteer contributors, transparent governance, and values-aligned sponsorships. Applying the PE playbook can easily destabilize that entire balance.

Take, for example, Vista Equity Partners’ $1 billion acquisition of Acquia in 2019. Acquia is the main commercial backer of Drupal, another popular open source CMS. In the years since the acquisition, the Drupal community has visibly struggled. Acquia appears to be contributing less code and providing less financial support to the ecosystem.

WordPress changed my life & career. That’s not an understatement at all. I’ve been watching a lot of the drama happening in the WordPress community with disappointment.

I think the broader issue is that Matt Mullenweg played the wrong Status Game with a non-human entity (a private equity backed corporation). He played the humiliation card against WP Engine. Anytime you play the humiliation card, the result is a scared and shaken community. But what happens when you play the card against a corporation that can’t feel shame? I think Matt Mullenweg was wrong in social tactics, but still right that WP Engine (and GoDaddy, etc) has turned extractive.

Share this post!

Similar Posts