Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has made headlines with its recent acquisition of the messaging app Beeper for a whopping $125 million. This move brings Beeper’s 27 employees, including co-founder Eric Migicovsky, into the Automattic family, with Migicovsky taking on the role of messaging head at the company.
Beeper gained attention for its innovative approach to messaging, offering a universal chat app that consolidates multiple messaging services into a single inbox. Since its beta launch in 2021, Beeper has attracted around 100,000 users by integrating with popular platforms like Facebook Messenger, Signal, and Slack.
However, Beeper’s journey has not been without controversy. Last year, the company introduced Beeper Mini, an app that brought iMessage to Android phones, sparking a dispute with Apple. The tech giant quickly shut down the app, citing security and privacy concerns for its users. This clash with Apple drew the attention of regulators and even prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to include the case in an antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker.
Migicovsky sees Beeper as a solution to the lack of open standards in online messaging and believes that the acquisition by Automattic will help raise awareness of this issue. Automattic’s founder and CEO, Matt Mullenweg, has long been an advocate for open-source technology and sees Beeper as a valuable addition to the company’s portfolio.
With this acquisition, Beeper is set to exit its beta phase and become available to all users. Automattic’s investment in Beeper could prove to be a strategic move in the messaging space, especially as pressure mounts on Apple to open up its iMessage platform. Critics argue that supporting RCS messaging between iPhones and Android devices is not enough to level the playing field, making Beeper’s vision for open messaging all the more relevant.