Automattic, Tumblr's parent company, is best known for WordPress. Automattic owns WordPress.com, the hosted publishing service built around WordPress, and contributes heavily to the broader WordPress ecosystem.
WordPress began in 2003 as an open-source blogging platform created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress.com launched as a hosted alternative, allowing people to create sites without managing their own web servers or software installations. Automattic was founded by Mullenweg in 2005 to operate WordPress.com and related internet products.
Automattic acquired Tumblr from Verizon Media in 2019. Tumblr and WordPress remain distinct products: Tumblr emphasizes short-form posts, reblogs, and social discovery, while WordPress supports blogs, business sites, publications, online stores, and much larger websites. The companies' shared ownership can therefore create confusion, but Tumblr was not simply renamed WordPress.