The big news over the past 24 hours is that Automattic has made their second investment, this time in a WordPress hosting company called WP Engine. WP Engine is a relatively new hosting company that manages WordPress.org installs for roughly 30,000 clients. The other side of the news is that a new partner program by Automattic called VIP Support For Webhosts which aims to provide VIP Support for Web Hosts including advanced systems and developer support for infrastructure-wide issues and improvements; annual review of the client’s entire stack as it relates to WordPress hosting; annual security audit and review of best practices and more.

Pretty cool to see Automattic making investments in WordPress centric companies. But what I want to know is, who can afford $50.00 a month for webhosting? By the way, the usual price is $100.00 per month. Congrats to WP Engine though for landing the funding and becoming the first partner program company for VIP support.