WP dealt with mid-range and large businesses while Flywheel focused on smaller ones WP Engine, which assists businesses in creating and managing their WordPress-hosted websites, has reportedly acquired digital experience platform Flywheel. Evidently, WordPress now constitutes for about 34% of all websites worldwide and WP Engine has become one of the major firms handling the design and management of WP-hosted websites. Financial details regarding the deal remained undisclosed. However, WP Engine Chairperson and CEO Heather Brunner informed that her firm had to raise funds from investors including GuidePost Growth Equity and Silver Lake. WP Engine’s earlier investors also include Silverton, WordPress developer Automattic and Eric Ries. Brunner also mentioned that the current annual revenue was at $132 million and that of Flywheel is $18 million. With a 50% growth rate, the companies are right on track to record an ARR of $200 million by 2020. Supposedly, the could surpass a $1 billion valuation on their way to a public listing. According to Brunner, the fact that WP dealt with mid-range and large businesses while Flywheel focused on smaller ones would make the two naturally complimentary to each other. She further added that the Flywheel team is extremely product focused and acts as a crucial medium for larger groups to benefit from. The acquisition seems to be an indication of some consolidation in the ecosystem emerging around WordPress. WP Engine is apparently the backbone of that ecosystem, working on creating and managing websites for around 120,000 brands and agencies across 150 countries. Dusty Davidson, Flywheel CEO and Co-founder, was quoted saying that the company was established with the idea that to help businesses use their full potential, there was a need to create a culture that inspired employees to do the same. He noted that this belief had led them in shaping Flywheel along with some of the most well-loved WordPress products. For the record, the list of partners in the WP Engine ecosystem, alongside WordPress, includes Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), HubSpot, New Relic and Cloudflare.   Source credit: https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/24/wordpress-management-site-wp-engine-acquires-flywheel-as-it-moves-to-a-1b-valuation-and-ipo/