Pocket Casts Acquired by Automattic

We've got some really exciting news we'd like to share with you - Pocket Casts is joining Automattic, the incredible company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and other fantastic products.

Last night I got an email from Pocket Casts about that they’re excited to be acquired by Automattic. I remember the one blog post by Jeremy Keith about “how excited companies are about getting bought” (I can’t find it right now). And I have to admit, the second I read about Pocket Casts acquisition, I somehow had a bad feeling. Not because Automattic is a _bad company, but too often I have companies, apps and services dying or at least having worse service or none at all anymore. I could mention many examples here. But as Moritz Gießman stated on Twitter, last time when Automattic bought Gravatar the service stayed more or less as it was before.

What is your experience with this? Join the conversation here.


Update 20 July 2021: Pocket Casts replied to me on Twitter stating …

“@marcthiele no plans to shut it down, just make it bigger and better. Welcome aboard!”

And later …

“ @marcthiele well we have some experience with this already. We've been on the team since 2010, and already were purchased in 2018 by US public radio. I get the healthy skepticism but I feel like there's more nuance here than just a blanket rule for what getting bought means :)”