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Automattic layoffs 2026
Automattic has begun laying off employees across multiple teams, including WordPress.com and its enterprise business, following a board shakeup and executive departures, with more cuts possibly to follow.
Source: TechCrunch
- What happened
- Automattic has begun laying off employees across multiple teams, including WordPress.com and its enterprise business, following a board shakeup and executive departures, with more cuts possibly to follow.
- Who
- Automattic · Australia & New Zealand
- When
- 2026-10-21
- Source
- TechCrunch
- So what
- Reductions rarely fall evenly, and the read is in the pattern.
The leadership read
Reductions rarely fall evenly, and the read is in the pattern. For Automattic in the sector, cuts like this tend to protect, and sometimes deepen, leadership where the company is betting, while thinning the rest. Across Oceania, watch which functions keep or add leadership; that is the strategy stated plainly.
Market context: MitchelLake's Talent Market Index sits at 122.7 (Hot), up 17.8 on the prior month; Oceania hiring signal is running easing (-24.9pts).
Automattic: 5 signals in the last 90 days; 0.2% of MitchelLake's Oceania signal flow; 7 tracked across 215 days.
MitchelLake in this thematic
Also at Automattic →
More signals across Oceania
Layoffs · Oceania
Apollo's MaxCap →MaxCap, a non-bank property lender backed by Apollo, is set to cut about a third of its staff after exposure to failed property developments, signalling stress in private credit.
Layoffs · Oceania
Zenith →Revolution Watch headline reports leadership shakeups at Zenith alongside job losses and a retail store closure.
Layoffs · Oceania
Westpac →Reporting indicates hundreds of Westpac jobs are at risk of being cut at the Australian bank.
Layoffs · Oceania
MaxCap →Apollo-owned non-bank lender MaxCap is set to cut around a third of its employees amid a private credit slump and exposure to failed property developments.
Layoffs · Oceania
eBay →eBay is cutting about 9% of its workforce (roughly 1,100 jobs, based on 12,300 staff at end of last year) to simplify operations and redirect resources to its fastest-growing areas such as authenticated luxury, collectibles and refurbished goods. This follows a separate ~6% (800-person) cut in February.
Layoffs · Oceania
Electronic Arts →Electronic Arts will close the BioWare studio (Mass Effect and Dragon Age) and cut about 400 jobs, roughly 3% of staff, per Bloomberg. The next Mass Effect game and a planned Sims project are cancelled. The company went private in a $55B buyout in August.
Where this lands in our work
- Fractional & Interim Executives →
Contraction concentrates scope on fewer leaders, and interim capability covers the gap.
- Executive Search: Oceania →
Our Oceania practice runs the searches behind signals like this one.
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