Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic, has been placed on paid leave of absence by the company’s board of directors.
The announcement
The news arrived via a company-wide Slack message this morning. Mullenweg wrote that he could not attend the Executive Leadership Team meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
“The biggest news: I won’t be able to make the ELT tomorrow,” he stated in the announcement. He explained that Mark Davies, the current Chief Financial Officer, had conspired with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker behind his back to vote him out of the role. Mullenweg noted he voted against the resolution.
Davies was voted in as the new interim CEO. Mullenweg received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting started. He asked repeatedly for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel, even for a few hours, but that request was denied.
What the board says
In the same Slack channel, Davies wrote that Mullenweg would remain a board member and retain a voice in setting direction and making decisions. He added that nothing would change as a result of Mullenweg’s leave.
“As you have seen from Matt’s previous messages, Automattic’s board has decided to ask Matt to step away from his CEO role and take a leave of absence,” Schneider wrote following Mullenweg’s message. “We have asked Mark Davies to assume the interim CEO role while Matt is out. We’ve worked closely with Mark over the years and we’re confident he will steer the ship well while Matt is away.”
“I want to thank Matt for his support and I intend to support him, the Board, Automattic, and our customers during this interim situation,” Davies wrote. “It will take me some time to come up to speed, but we’ll move forward with transparency, communication, and teamwork.”
Mullenweg, Automattic, Schneider, and Davies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Background context
Mullenweg is the founder of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress, Tumblr, Pocket Casts, and a host of other popular internet brands and pieces of software. He has faced several controversies over his management of the company in recent years.
For the last few years, Mullenweg has waged a divisive legal battle with WP Engine, sparing publicly with opponents and peers on social media and in his personal blog.
In 2024, he made an “Alignment Offer,” giving Automattic employees who disagreed with his stances the option to take six months of pay or $30,000, whichever was higher. The stipulation was that they would lose access to their work logins that same evening and would not be eligible for rehire.
One hundred and fifty-nine people took the offer and left. He then made another buyout offer, and threatened employees who spoke to the press with termination, saying, “exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.”
Most recently, Automattic attempted to claim it owns the word “automatic.”
What it means
For the people building WordPress and other Automattic products, this is a significant shift in leadership without a change in daily operations. Mullenweg remains on the board, so the strategic direction he helped set is still in play. The interim CEO, Mark Davies, has promised transparency but admitted it will take time to come up to speed. The immediate impact is a pause in Mullenweg’s direct involvement in the executive team, while the company attempts to stabilise under new management.
