Post-Acquisition Playbook: Life After Your WordPress Company’s Acquisition

They say that the only constant in life is change, and it can certainly feel that way when your WordPress company is acquired.

One minute, everything is ticking along like normal, the next, you’re part of an entirely new and much bigger family, finding yourself in the midst of a ‘settling in’ phase that brings about one new change after another. 

Sure, you’re excited about the possibilities and the potential to do great things, but let’s be honest:

A company acquisition can be stressful for all concerned.

Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, we got you.

We’ve been around the acquisition process ourselves -twice now, in fact,- so you could say we know a few things about adapting and thriving in a new corporate environment. 

Below, we share the story of how our WordPress business was acquired, what we learned from it, and our advice on how to make the acquisition a roaring success.

What It’s Really Like to Be Acquired? Our First-Hand Experience

There’s no denying that a lot of uncertainty can arise when your WordPress company is bought out by another brand. 

When we first found out that UnlimitedWP had officially acquired WPLift, it didn’t come completely out of the blue. 

Our editorial team already had a pretty good working relationship with the white-label WordPress development agency, and we knew there was a good deal of synergy between their brand values and our own.

Still, even when you err more on the side of optimism, the very nature of company acquisitions means you’re bound to have questions:

• Do I still have a job?
• If so, do I still have the same job? Or is my role about to change?
• Will my relationship with new coworkers be one of collaboration or conflict?
• Will they new owners trust our experience and understanding of what works best? Or are they so determined to rebuild our brand in their own image that they’ll implement their vision without talking to us?

Things could have gone either way here. Either UnlimitedWP would keep us in the dark, or they’d address our uncertainty head-on.

Fortunately, they went with the latter, fostering a culture of open communication right from the get-go and not only being open to receiving questions from their newly adopted crew but answering them with maximum honesty.

It was an experience that prepared us well for our second experience with a business acquisition when, earlier this year, UnlimitedWP was acquired by E2M Solutions. 

If we had concerns before, they were doubled now. Sure, E2M’s reputation as a leading WordPress development agency preceded them, but those of us in the WPLift newsroom didn’t have the same close relationship with them as we had with UnlimitedWP. 

So, naturally, we had even more questions.

• Was this the end of the line for us? Or would E2M Solutions see the value in what we were doing here at WPLift? 
• Having just settled in with our new UnlimitedWP family, were roles and management hierarchies about to change all over again?

Ultimately, it turned out we had nothing to worry about.

It was clear from the outset that, like UnlimitedWP before them, E2M had studied the WordPress company acquisition playbook well.

They understood the impact of both acquiring and being acquired, leading us through a period of transition with all the reassurance, transparency, and open communication needed to make this change as frictionless as possible.

Below, we draw on what we’ve learned throughout this process to help you understand, measure, and navigate the inevitable impact of having your WordPress business acquired by another company.

What to Expect When You’re Acquired: Understanding the Impact on Your WordPress Business

1. Integration Challenges

Organizational Restructuring

An acquisition of any kind means more people coming together under one umbrella. Some of those people are likely to have overlapping roles and responsibilities. 

No matter how you look at it, this isn’t exactly a recipe for maximum efficiency, meaning some level of organizational restructuring is inevitable. 

If there’s any part of the transition that’s going to cause the most anxiety and uncertainty in your newly acquired company, this is going to be it. 

In our experience, we found the secret to getting through this stage comes down to three key things:

Being Willing To Ask Questions

A good parent company will be on the ball when it comes to keeping you updated on its restructuring plans, but don’t be afraid to speak up if you’re not sure where these plans leave you.

Being Your Own Advocate

Be bold enough to demonstrate your value to your new employers.

At some point, they’re likely to begin evaluating each person’s contribution and how that aligns with the company’s long-term vision. This is all part of a process to streamline efficiency, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a victim of said efficiency, even if you have a nearly identical counterpart in this new, larger company. 

You know what you bring to the table. You know your worth and you know how your skill set can help your parent company achieve its goals. 

So, don’t be afraid to get to know the key players involved in any restructuring process. Ask questions, be proactive in building relationships, and in proving your capabilities in producing results. 

There’s no better way to overcome some of the fears that come with being acquired than making sure you’re an indispensable part of the new team.

Being Adaptable

Of course, part of being a team player may mean jumping into a different role entirely. 

Let’s say you’ve always been responsible for developing eCommerce projects, but now there’s another eCommerce development manager in your team with nearly identical responsibilities. 

Would you be willing to take the skills and experience you’ve gained in this role and apply them to a new position, perhaps as a project leader in another part of the company?

Being open to change can make the transition much smoother, and even present new and exciting opportunities to utilize your skills in a whole other arena.

Cultural Integration

Never underestimate how much cultural clashes can impact productivity and morale in a newly merged company. 

Differences in communication styles, decision-making processes, and work ethic can lead to the kind of dissension and misunderstanding that gets in the way of doing what really matters:

Producing great work for your clients.

In an ideal world, the management team behind your merger would take the time to recognize and understand the differences in corporate cultures and look to find common ground. 

Identifying shared values and goals and combining them with the best practices of both companies can lead to a unified approach that has everyone singing from the same proverbial hymn sheet and working towards a shared goal.

Bringing People Together

One ideal way for management teams to avoid the kind of cultural conflicts so prevalent in merged businesses is to bring people together. 

Without compromising current client work, find a time for everyone to down tools and connect, get to know one another, and establish relationships. 

An after-work social event or an event celebrating the new partnership can go a long way to building cohesion and nipping tensions in the bud before they hinder your progress.

2. Management Challenges

Nobody envies the kind of decisions you’ll have to make as a manager in an acquired WordPress business.

This is especially true when it comes to identifying those roles that are essential to the growth of the company, and the key players who will fill them.

The unfortunate truth is that not everybody may be able to stay exactly where they are doing exactly what they’ve always done.

Job descriptions may need to be rewritten, entire teams may be restructured or absorbed into other teams. Some roles may even cease to exist.

Of course, no manager at any level with a shred of empathy truly wants to see the people they work with out of a job.

Your challenge is to advocate for those you know can provide genuine value while also identifying gaps and opportunities for restructuring.

For example, say you have a talented employee whose job is to provide Search Engine Optimization services for your clients.

By the time the acquisition is complete, you’re left with an over-staffed client SEO team which needs to be cut.

Could that talented employee be placed in a new role handling in-house SEO assignments instead? 

Here’s what we’ve learned to be the most effective ways to manage these changes, and all the employee uncertainty that goes along with them.

Initiate an Open Door Policy

Let it be known that you’re ready and willing to chat with any employee at any time about their concerns, and if you can’t answer their questions right away, make note of them and speak to someone who can. 

Utilize a Skills Matrix

A skills matrix helps you to understand the capabilities of your existing team, identify training needs, and, perhaps most importantly in this case, map skill sets to critical roles within your company.

For example, if you identify a critical role that requires strong data analysis and project management skills, you can use the skills matrix to pinpoint which members of your team might be best placed to fill that role. 

Consider Training and Development Needs

At the very least, your employees will benefit from an onboarding process through which they can familiarize themselves with any changes. 

Along with the big-picture stuff regarding roles, structures, and the overall corporate vision this should address the more practical, day-to-day concerns such as:

• How have employee benefits and compensation changed?
• What is the new process for requesting PTO?
• What is the company’s policy on working from home?

Elsewhere, you’ll need to consider the individual training needs of employees who may be moving into a new role.

Look again at your skills matrix. What opportunities are there to further upskill your top talent so that they’re fully armed and ready to take on new responsibilities?

3. Operational and Process Integration

After personnel, the next biggest post-acquisition change you’ll face relates to systems, processes, and infrastructure.

Here, it’s all about streamlining for efficiency and creating a standardized, harmonious approach to operations.

In the world of WordPress, this may involve:

Hosting and Technical Infrastructure

You have a contract to house your client’s WordPress websites with one enterprise hosting company while your parent company hosts an entirely different business. 

If there are cost and time savings to be made by hosting everything with one provider, then it makes sense.

In this scenario, there’ll obviously be the need to plan and execute a thorough WordPress migration project to bring everything together under one hosting platform.

Things to think about here include:

• Who will be responsible for that?
• How can you move your clients’ websites with minimum downtime or disruptions?

Tools and Software

At some point, expect an audit of the platforms used to carry out your client work.

Consolidating these tools can reduce costs, but also present new challenges.

For example, if your parent company inherits your license for a particular SaaS platform but they already have their own license for a similar platform that does the same thing, it’s a waste of money to keep both.

Yet while it makes sense to switch to a single platform, it also requires thorough planning to export and import data, not to mention training staff on software they may not have used before.

Operating Procedures

• How are new job requests logged?
• What metrics are tracked and reported?
• How are key decisions made and problems solved? More importantly, by who?

What are the official channels of communication? Is there a Slack group you’re supposed to be a part of or do you maintain the status quo with email and phone calls?

The chances are that both companies will have done things at least somewhat differently from one another.

So, moving forward, expect these divergent operating procedures to merge into a single, standard approach.

Backend Functionality

It isn’t just the WordPress stuff that’s likely to change after an acquisition.

Back-end tools and processes relating to customer relationship management, finance, payroll, and HR  will also be reevaluated and streamlined.

4. Financial Performance and Analysis

Auditing your resources and infrastructure will go a long way to optimizing operational costs.

However, for an acquisition to be truly successful, it pays to evaluate how your streamlined operation can be put to work in maximizing profits and growth. 

If you’re involved in a decision-making role at your company, you may find yourself involved in analyzing the revenues and expenses of both companies before and after the merger. 

This can help identify trends and patterns and establish new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the company as a whole to work towards. 

This process might involve using data analytics tools to dig deep into the financial performance and identify areas for improvement. 

It may even mean redefining your service offer.

If both companies were previously targeting the same type of customer with the same needs, there could be some scope to either consolidate teams and expand your customer base, or look for ways that the same services could be offered to previously untapped markets.

5. Customer Retention and Satisfaction

Speaking of customers, don’t overlook their needs and concerns as you transition to life after acquisition. 

Just like you, they’re too going to have questions:

• How will this affect our Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Will the cost of my service go up?
• Will I still have the same account manager who I’ve spent years building a good relationship with? 

If our experience has taught us anything, it’s that the secret to maintaining the loyalty and trust of your customers is to communicate early and clearly about the changes involved.

Utilize your marketing channels such as blog posts and social media outlets to announce the change in ownership.

Go one further and email customers about what’s happening and, more importantly, how it may affect their business relationship with you.

You may even want to go one step further and invite clients to a kind of virtual town hall meeting where they can ask questions of management from both your company and the company that acquired you.

Or, at the very least, invite them to respond to your email with any questions they may have.

Of course, if you’re going to do this, then you’ll need to ensure that any employee in a customer-facing role is adequately trained to handle any questions that come their way.

6. Branding, Positioning, and Market Expansion

So, your communication strategy was on point and you made it through the acquisition process without losing a single customer.

That’s great, but let’s be honest:

Neither company got into this relationship to merely maintain the status quo.

A successful partnership can be the catalyst for major brand growth, opening doors to potential new markets.

This may call for an entirely new branding strategy, creating a whole new unified identity that communicates the shared strengths and values of the individual brands.

If you work in a marketing role, this is your time to shine.

You’ll benefit from a comprehensive marketing plan that not only communicates the new identity itself, but what it represents.

It’s about sharing a revised and reenergized value proposition, generating excitement about a newly formed brand that is greater than the sum of its parts.

7. Regulatory Compliance and Legal Considerations

For all the excitement and world of potential an acquisition can bring, it also presents a potential minefield of legal considerations to contend with.

It could be that the acquiring company operates in a different state, territory, or country than you, meaning they’ll need to consider how that impacts their compliance with local data protection laws such as GDPR or CCPA 2.0.

It could mean undergoing the complex process of reconciling financial statements that previously adhered to different industry standards, for example, GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) in the United States and IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) on the global stage.

Elsewhere, employment law and changes to any contracts you have in place with vendors or subcontractors may need to be addressed.

That’s before you even consider one of your company’s most valuable assets:

Intellectual property (IP).

Here, it pays to conduct a thorough audit of IP and patents, clearly defining who owns what and how ownership rights may be enforced.

Depending on the nature of the IP, it may be that some licensing agreements need to be renegotiated, while others may need to be abandoned altogether if they no longer align with the new company mission.

Whatever the case may be, it pays to put your legal counsel and compliance experts to work in ensuring everything is legitimate, above board, and in adherence with industry regulations.

That way, you avoid the kind of fines and legal woes that can derail your newly merged brand before it even has a chance to flourish.

8. Measuring Success and Long-Term Strategy

Although we’ve saved this point until the end, it’s by no means the last thing you should think about.

From internal restructuring to rebranding, marketing, and compliance, everything we’ve talked about so far is shaped and molded by a long-term vision for the future.

Define your KPIs right from the start.

Are they the same kind of success metrics both companies were individually tracking anyway? Or does the shift in focus and priorities require an equal shift in goals and objectives?

What’s more, think about how different branches of the merged company will require different performance indicators.

For example, as a content-focused platform, metrics such as page views are a bigger indicator of success for us here at WPLift than it is for our colleagues doing the development work over at UnlimitedWP and E2M Solutions.

Whatever the case may be, these metrics can be used to create a comprehensive growth strategy with achievable, measurable SMART goals.

This strategy should also include a detailed roadmap on how to achieve those goals, and it is this roadmap that will ultimately inform the decisions that are made throughout the ‘settling in’ phase.

For example, if the two combined companies prioritize attracting customers in new markets, then that might influence how teams are restructured and marketing plans are coordinated.

Likewise, a focus on cost reduction and efficiency will be at the forefront when decisions are made about your infrastructure and processes.

Case Studies and Examples of Successful WordPress Acquisitions

We’ve shared a lot of lessons from our own experience in the world of WordPress acquisitions, but the industry is full of success stories that any newly acquired brand can learn from.

Here’s a look at some recent acquisitions and the lessons we can learn from them.

1. WPEngine Buys NitroPack

In the summer of 2024, Nitropack announced that it had been acquired by WordPress hosting specialists, WP Engine.

Promoting the move as a way of achieving a “shared vision for a faster, more efficient web,” the official announcement provided a masterclass on how to pitch an acquisition as a good thing for customers and the WordPress community as a whole. 

WPEngine is a hosting company that wants its customers to have fast websites. Nitropack is a website speed optimization company working towards the goal of an overall “faster web on a large scale.”

The marketing and communications around the merger focused on how, by joining forces, the individual companies are in a stronger position to improve user-friendliness across the web.

2. Beacon Acquired by OptinMonster

Back in February, OptinMonster announced that they had bought Beacon, a drag-and-drop editor for creating lead magnets.

With this acquisition, we see two already strong companies coming together to create an even stronger value proposition.

OptinMonster’s primary goal was always to help customers get more leads.

By leveraging Beacon’s AI tools to make it easier to create lead-generating assets, the company provides greater value to new and existing users.

Meanwhile, Beacon customers now have the advantage that they can use one of the world’s biggest email marketing platforms to get their lead magnets out there without the need for a separate subscription.

Ultimately, this shows how both companies found a way to reach a new audience and pool their resources for the good of their customers.

3. Automatic Acquires Text

One of the more surprising acquisitions in recent years saw Automattic buy out messaging service, Texts.

To the casual observer, the move came somewhat out of left field. After all, the WordPress.com owners had previously focused their multiple acquisitions in the .org space on publishing and eCommerce.

However, Texts is a messaging app that allows users to manage all of their communications across multiple messaging services (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.) in one place.

Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg explained the move by noting that this was part of a longer strategy to make messaging the “third pillar” of his company’s core offer.

Suddenly, things made much more sense.

Automattic wanted to move into the messaging space. They could have created their own product, but instead looked for an existing solution and brought it into the fold, making it much easier to hit the ground running.

Life After Your WordPress Company’s Acquisition: Mix Feelings

From front-line staff to behind-the-scenes management, from the marketing to the legal department, all the way to the very customers you serve, everyone is affected, and they all want to know one thing:

What does this mean for me?

Some may be concerned about their future and job security, some may be enthralled by new possibilities. For others, it’s most likely to be a combination of both; understandable concern mixed with tepid optimism.

If there’s one key theme running through all the lessons we’ve shared with you today, it’s that open communication is the secret to dealing with these mixed feelings and moving forward into bigger and better things.

From a management perspective, it’s about being honest, transparent, and available, providing your employees with updates, and being willing to answer questions.

From an employee standpoint, it comes down to having the courage to speak up, to advocate for yourself, and to ask those important questions in the first place.

Keep this in mind as you navigate the unchartered waters of your own acquisition experience, and we hope you’ll find it every bit as successful and rewarding as those of us here at WPLift, UnlimitedWP, and E2M Solutions.