it's an equity investment in New Vector (the for-profit which the original Matrix team set up) - so they'll want their money back in future (e.g. if New Vector went public somehow). But the thesis is that it's possible to ethically and sustainably sell Matrix services without compromising the open source / open network / open standard side - much as Wordpress.com does for Wordpress.org.

just for clarification:

Everyone can offer a #Matrix service that is compensated with cash. A equity investment is not an requirement to do so.
The automatic team (" #wordpress team") could have donated and still make profit with matrix.

Equity #investment afaik is an investment that bets on a company to be sold for a higher stake.
1/2

What would be the benefit for matrix, if #NewVector becomes sold for a high price?
What would be the downside for matrix, if New Vector becomes sold for a high price?

In terms of power for decision making, what's the benefit automatic gains through this investment?

2/2

Sure, Automattic could just launch a Matrix hosting product themselves. Or they could instead fund the core Matrix team via NV. The benefit for Matrix if NV went public is that there would be a lot of $ around to keep Matrix development on the track. If NV was sold instead, it'd only be to someone who would continue to fund Matrix dev. Automattic gets zero benefit for decision making over Matrix through this, but they do get input into making NV a sustainable biz.