WordPress hosting provider
WP Engine is to acquire fellow WordPress specialist Flywheel. With global headquarters in Austin, Texas, United States (and offices in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California), WP Engine also has a presence in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The company’s services leverage the popularity of the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) - a website development solution that is available on an Open Source basis and therefore can be downloaded free of charge. This makes it popular with individuals and companies alike, and now more than a quarter of all websites utilize WordPress software. WP Engine was in the news earlier this year for being recognized in the Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Web Content Management (WCM)’. Its acquisition of Flywheel is recognized as being the largest to date involving companies involved in WordPress specialization.
Flywheel has headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The company bills itself as offering “delightful managed WordPress hosting” with “agencies, freelancers, and creatives” in mind. Its focus is providing tools that allow developers to “build, launch, and manage” WordPress sites. One such tool is ‘Local by Flywheel’ - a local development environment that simplifies WordPress workflow and is available as a free download. To date, over 100,000 people have benefitted from Flywheel’s products. Together WP Engine and Flywheel will enhance WP Engine’s ‘Digital Experience Platform for WordPress’.
WordPress and Flywheel will build on their combined experience and investments to offer “the largest WordPress-related ‘Agency Partner Program’”. Post-acquisition WP Engine will be able to “power more than 120,000 brands and agencies in 150 countries” through seven offices worldwide. “On behalf of the WP Engine team, we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with one of the most respected brands in WordPress,” suggested WP Engine’s CEO and Chairwoman, Heather Brunner.
“I personally welcome each employee and customer into the WP Engine family and I’m excited about the opportunities we will create in the years to come,” added Ms. Brunner. “This powerful combination furthers our vision to be the most relied-upon platform for WordPress. Our continued investment in WordPress, our shared values and culture, our enterprise-class technology and support, our community of agency partners and most of all our people will be a powerful driver to bring our customers’ breakthrough digital experiences to life.”
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