I've said this before, but Automattic's catalogue of products reads like an elephant graveyard of past internet fads.

I view an acquisition like this as a relative death knell, but only insofar as we have seen unified messaging attempted time and again only to fail due to combinations of social pressures and anticompetitive technical choices. Beeper will be absorbed into another also-ran messaging platform that won't be able to compete with whatever communities already have critical mass.

However, as far as exits go, it sort of seems like the best possible outcome for the folks at Beeper, so congrats.