It's the end of an era - StellarWP is no more. Some of the most important brands in the WordPress ecosystem - LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Kadence, Iconic, GiveWP and others - have had their websites taken offline and redirected to basic landing pages on the website of their parent company, Liquid Web 😢 For 5 years, I watched the development of StellarWP with interest as it was a first-of-its kind in WordPress. I never shared my opinions publicly because I had many friends there. However, those people have either quit or been laid-off, and now feels like the time due to genuine concern for these great brands and their future, and what this means for the wider WordPress community. Back in 2020/2021, the WordPress product ecosystem was growing rapidly. Many products were seeing huge growth, which sparked a wave of acquisitions. Some were by hosting companies like Liquid Web, who saw potential in expanding into products. They acquired an impressive range of products and created the StellarWP umbrella brand to house them. In my opinion, this was the first mistake. I never understood the purpose of a public-facing Stellar brand because it diluted the visibility of well-known brands that the public was already familiar with. For example, each individual product no longer had a prominent presence at WordCamps because they were represented at the shared Stellar booth instead, which felt strange for brands as big as LearnDash. I'm sure the existence of Stellar brought some benefits internally - e.g. shared resources and centralized marketing - but publicly, I think it harmed the products rather than helping them. Another mistake was acquiring companies of vastly different sizes. It's sensible to apply the 80/20 rule to business by prioritizing the highest revenue products - I do this myself with Barn2's plugins. However, I noticed that some of Stellar's smaller brands - once highly respected independent businesses - were neglected. I struggle to see the logic in acquiring a brand and then giving it less focus. I suspect that some of the companies that acquired WordPress products during the 2020/2021 boom expected the high level of growth to continue post-Covid, which was never realistic. If revenue projections weren't met then naturally, this would have led to the patterns we've seeing at Stellar, such as multiple rounds of cuts, layoffs and restructures - and ultimately deprioritizing their entire product range, as we are seeing with the death of their individual websites. However, the true reason I'm writing this is not to analyze the reasons - it's because I'm concerned about what happens next. I can foresee two possible futures for Stellar's products: FUTURE 1 - SLOW DECLINE The decision to relegate huge brands to minor landing pages on the Liquid Web site suggests that we'll see a slow decline of these products over time. We'll see further cuts and layoffs, and some of WordPress' best brands will fade. That would be a loss for everyone because strong, visible products strengthen the WordPress ecosystem as a whole. FUTURE 2 - ACQUISITION I'd love to see the Stellar brands get acquired by a company (or multiple companies) that understand their value and can give each product what it needs to grow and thrive. Companies with a strong record of building successful WordPress products. I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope these products end up with people who truly understand and care about the WordPress product ecosystem and have the ability to take them forward. More than anything, I hope the outcome gives the remaining people working on these products the stability and leadership they deserve.