In reply to Colin.

If I may expand:

“I will say that we’re not trying to compete with the WordPress ecosystem,” Ohara said. “We want to help the overall ecosystem grow and I look forward to working closely with the community.”

I respectfully disagree. If I may pick an example, the only one who has access to search data of w.org/plugins and w.org/themes is Automattic. These data are not available to “ecosystem” but they are available to Automattic and give a competitive advantage to Jetpack. Doesn’t this make Ohara’s statement false? On top of being a conflict of interests?

If you visit https://wordpress.org/plugins, all of the “featured” plugins are Automattic properties. We follow WordPress.org plugin guidelines to the letter, like many others. Why is nobody from this wide “ecosystem” ever featured? You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see “popular”. How is that helping all of us extending WordPress.org?

Those are just 2 examples, feel free to bring up more or refute mine.

There are undeniably great people and things surrounding WordPress, but I am getting sick of pretending this is not a cutthroat business. Everybody wants a piece, Automattic, GoDaddy, WP Engine — all acquiring WP products and developers left and right, everyone trying to make their own version of hosted WordPress SaaS.

I still think that Automattic is the best of the bunch and will do the most to protect the w.org. I know and respect many people working on w.org. I believe many do have ecosystem interests in heart. However, my experience is that VC money rarely bring any good to the table.