Automattic Now Owns the Most Obvious Domain in Web Hosting — Why?

Go to WebHosting.com right now and you’ll see two things: the words “coming soon” and an Automattic logo. That’s the whole announcement — no press release, no product, nada. All we know is that the parent company of WordPress now owns the most literal domain name in the industry.

For years, WebHosting.com belonged to AT&T, the telecom provider. It didn’t really do anything with it; Archive.org shows that the domain just redirected to a web hosting subdomain on ATT.com, which was described as “sitting dormant.”

In late June, that changed: WHOIS records show that the domain transferred from CSC, AT&T’s corporate registrar, to MarkMonitor, the registrar that Automattic uses, with Automattic, Inc. listed as the new owner. Domain investor Elliot Silver was among the first (if not the first) to spot the change and broke the story on DomainInvesting.com on July 2.

But one thing no coverage can confirm is what the deal actually is. For example, there’s really nothing that suggests Automattic bought AT&T’s hosting customers or servers. It looks like it’s just a domain purchase, which begs the question: What’s Automattic planning on doing with it?

Silver’s prediction is that WebHosting.com will become a hosting platform for running WordPress sites. But this is just a theory, especially considering the fact that Automattic already sells hosting multiple ways: WordPress.com for small sites, Pressable for growing brands, and WordPress VIP for enterprise systems.

Would a fourth web hosting method really add much to Automattic’s portfolio? Maybe, if there’s no CMS attached. If that happens, Automattic would be stepping outside of the stake it’s claimed for literal decades — away from managed WordPress but just hosting.

It would probably be the company’s biggest move into the general market. That’s also where other hosts like Bluehost, Hostinger, and GoDaddy are currently occupying.

We should really consider the timing of this domain purchase. Automattic is still entangled in a massive, multi-year-long lawsuit with WP Engine.

For those who need a TL;DR, the fight started when Matt Mullenweg requested what WP Engine described as an 8% royalty or licensing payment on its monthly gross revenue for using the WordPress brand.

“If you estimate that would be about $32 million — they still would have been free cash-flow positive, and based on our estimates, and the negotiations over the past 18 months, we felt like that was a fair amount,” Mullenweg said at TechCrunch’s Disrupt 2024.

Then in February, WP Engine alleged in its filings that Automattic had plans to charge the same kinds of fees to 10 hosting competitors. The complaint specified that Newfold Digital, the parent of Bluehost and HostGator, is already paying Automattic for trademark use.

Obviously, we don’t know if the lawsuit and the domain purchase are connected, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the timing. Because the company already has WordPress.com, Pressable, and WordPress VIP — buying a domain as iconic as WebHosting.com feels like a clear strategy.

This is all speculation, of course. Until that “Coming Soon” homepage disappears, nobody outside of Automattic knows what’s coming.