Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatars) has been acquired by Automattic. Changes to Gravatar over the past few days :

• Automattic transferred the Rails application and most of the avatar serving to WordPress.com infrastructure and servers.
• Avatar serving is now more than three times as fast, and works every time.
• All the Premium Services like Multiple email id’s and avatars are now free. Everyone who paid for a premium account in the past 60 days will be refunded.