Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has been placed on a leave of absence against his wishes by the company's board of directors, according to a Slack message viewed by TechCrunch. In a message posted Wednesday to a company-wide Slack channel, Mullenweg told employees that chief financial officer Mark Davies had "conspired" with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker to vote him into a paid leave, with Mullenweg casting the only vote against the measure. Davies was appointed interim CEO, and Automattic confirmed the leadership change in a statement expressing full confidence in Davies and the team's ability to execute on company priorities.
Mullenweg wrote in his Slack post that he received the board resolution just 50 minutes before the scheduled meeting and asked repeatedly for time to have independent legal counsel review it, even requesting just a few hours, but was denied. Davies informed employees through the Slack channel that Mullenweg remains a member of the board of directors. Mary Hubbard, executive director of the open source WordPress.org project, clarified in a separate message to the WordPress.org community that the leadership shift at the commercial entity doesn't affect the nonprofit project, writing that Mullenweg remains the leader of WordPress and that teams, priorities, and work continue as planned. Schneider, who served as Automattic's CEO from 2006 to 2014, confirmed to 404 Media that the board initiated the action, though Mullenweg's message didn't specify the board's reasoning.
The forced leave comes after years of legal battles and internal turmoil at Automattic, which Mullenweg founded in 2003 following his co-creation of the WordPress content management system and which owns brands including Tumblr, WooCommerce, and Pocket Casts. The company is locked in a drawn-out legal fight with WP Engine, a WordPress hosting rival that sued in October 2024 alleging defamation and abuse of power after Mullenweg accused the firm of profiting from WordPress without contributing to the community and demanded it pay 8% of monthly gross revenue as a royalty fee for using the WordPress brand. In February, WP Engine claimed Automattic planned to target ten more competitors with similar royalty demands. Tensions under Mullenweg's leadership reached a boiling point in 2024 when he told employees to quit with severance if they disagreed with him, and 159 accepted the offer. Last year, he threatened to deactivate accounts of several WordPress.org community members after two allegedly planned to create a forked version of the open source project; those involved denied the plans but said Mullenweg deactivated their accounts and others' anyway. In April 2025, the company cut 16% of its workforce, including longtime employees who'd been with Automattic for over a decade.
The timing of the board's decision remains unclear, though one source speculated it might relate to Mullenweg's annual attendance at the Burning Man festival, which ended September 7, after which he typically returns "with ideas." Mullenweg posted a series of messages on X Wednesday evening that may hint at the board's motivation, writing in one that "they have a pretty good chance of getting a judge to say I spoiled evidence in a malicious way trying to hide something," referring to the ongoing WP Engine litigation, an allegation he vehemently denied. In another post, he said he expects "smear attacks, so get ready for some National Enquirer rumors or hit pieces," and suggested one attempt occurred when his Nikon D6 camera was stolen at Burning Man and recovered a day later, though he said the 2000-plus photos on the memory card contained nothing usable against him. Employee reactions have been mixed, with some telling sources they feel "ecstatic" or "relieved" while others express concern about the additional instability the leadership change creates. The move represents a dramatic shift for a company navigating costly legal disputes and internal discord, raising questions about whether new management can stabilize operations while Mullenweg's influence over both the commercial enterprise and the broader WordPress ecosystem remains contested.