WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg is back as CEO of Automattic days after his board put him on leave. The episode at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr and other digital properties, played out with remarkable speed and public flair. It has left observers wondering what it says about governance in one of the web’s most important companies.
On September 9, the board voted to place founder and longtime chief executive Matt Mullenweg on paid leave. Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies would step in as interim CEO. The company confirmed the move to reporters the same day. “Matt Mullenweg is currently on leave from Automattic,” an Automattic spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Mark Davies, Automattic’s CFO, will lead the company as interim CEO. The Board has full confidence in Mark’s leadership and in the team’s ability to execute against the company’s priorities.”
The decision caught Mullenweg off guard. He received the resolution about 50 minutes before the board meeting. His request for time to consult independent legal counsel was denied. So he took the matter to the company Slack. There, he named names. Davies had “conspired” with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker, he wrote, according to messages viewed by multiple outlets. “They voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that. Wishing Mark and all of you the very best.”
Schneider, who had served as Automattic CEO from 2006 to 2014, addressed employees in the same channel. The board had decided to ask Mullenweg to step away temporarily. Davies would steer the ship. Or so the plan went.
But the plan unraveled almost immediately. Mullenweg did not go quietly. Late on September 10 or early the next day he posted again in the company-wide announcements channel. “(Don’t call it a comeback…) Howdy everybody! Happy to announce the board is back in agreement, and I’m in control of Automattic,” he wrote, per screenshots shared with TechCrunch. “A lot happened in the past 48 hours that we need to sort out, and I hope much of it was a misunderstanding, because I have huge respect and regard for those involved.”
He removed other admins from the company Slack, multiple sources told TechCrunch, and at one point posted, “I’m a pirate now.”
By September 12 the company reversed course officially. A spokesperson emailed TechCrunch that evening: “Matt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, with full support of the board and if you search online you can see many top executives and Automatticians supporting him as well.” The phrasing struck some as unusually personal. Search Engine Journal noted it read as if dictated by Mullenweg himself. In a later statement, Automattic said: “Matt was away for only 33 hours and 20 minutes—we’re now back to work.” Questions remain about exactly what prompted the initial vote and how the board reached agreement so quickly.
Mullenweg took to X as well. “If you don’t have a coup attempt every few years, you’re not hiring strong enough leaders,” he posted. In another message he called it his fifth. The tone mixed defiance with a certain pride in the strength of his bench. Yet the episode highlights deeper tensions.
Employees have described years of chaotic leadership decisions at Automattic, according to 404 Media. The company’s distributed, autonomous culture has produced innovation but also inconsistency. Recent public battles, including a high-profile dispute with hosting provider WP Engine, have drawn criticism from parts of the open-source community Mullenweg has long championed. That fight involved WordPress.org resources being used against a commercial rival. It left scars.
Automattic’s valuation has also fallen sharply. A recent BlackRock filing placed it 83 percent below its 2021 peak, The Repository reported. The company remains private. Its portfolio includes WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr and Pocket Casts. These assets matter. They touch hundreds of millions of users and a huge share of the web’s infrastructure.
WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard offered public support after the reversal. “I’m relieved and pleased to see Matt Mullenweg return as CEO of Automattic, the largest financial contributor to the WordPress project,” she wrote on X, as quoted by Pulse 2.0. “Having WordPress’s Co-founder and Project Lead at the helm gives me confidence that their support will remain strong. Matt has my support.” Her statement underscored the overlap between the nonprofit WordPress project and the for-profit Automattic. That relationship has always been close. It just became visibly strained.
The reasons for the board’s initial move remain unknown publicly. No explanation has surfaced beyond the terse corporate statements. Was it strategic differences? Performance concerns? A desire for more conventional governance? Or something else?
Mullenweg hasn’t explained his side in full. When TechCrunch asked whether his Slack posts about being back were legitimate, he promised a blog post; the post that arrived was about buying a houseboat. He noted on X that this was likely the fifth “coup” he has faced.
One thing is clear. The man who co-created the software that runs so much of the modern web still holds the reins of its largest commercial steward. How the board, the employees and the broader community respond in the coming months will determine whether this was a brief anomaly or a symptom of something more persistent.
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