Automattic Acquires WordPress Plugin ZBS CRM

Parent company of WordPress.com will be joined by ZBS CRM’s two co-founders, Michael Stott and Woody Hayday

Automattic Inc., the company behind website-building platform WordPress.com, has acquired ZBS CRM, the WordPress–based CRM plugin founded by developers Mike Stott and Woody Hayday.

ZBS CRM will get a new name — Jetpack CRM — in the near future, but will continue to provide entrepreneurs and small businesses with a no-nonsense contact-management system delivered through the WordPress platform.

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The CRM plugin’s next major release – version 3.0 – is scheduled for late September. It will feature better performance and extensibility, and introduce Mail Campaigns (among other new features).

As ZBS CRM becomes part of Automattic, a planned price increase for version 3.0 has been scrapped, and the CRM will remain at its low-entry-point pricing model for the foreseeable future. Service for existing users will continue as–is.

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Automattic is a fully distributed company with more than 930 people working from 70 countries. The ZBS team is also fully distributed.

“We’re excited to join Automattic, where we’re confident that our no-nonsense CRM will mature into the refined contact-management platform we’ve been building toward. With access to new people and resources, we look forward to developing a CRM solution for the wider market,” said Woody Hayday, ZBS CRM co-founder.

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