Automattic board puts WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg on involuntary leave

The board of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has voted to place its founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence over his objection, according to TechCrunch. Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies will lead the company as interim CEO, while Mullenweg — who co-created WordPress and founded Automattic in 2003 — remains on the board of directors.

How the decision came out

The news broke through Mullenweg himself. In a Slack message visible to all Automattic employees on Wednesday, he said Davies had acted alongside board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker without his knowledge, and that the group had voted to put him on paid leave. Mullenweg cast the opposing vote, according to his message as reported by TechCrunch, and told staff that Davies had been voted in as interim CEO. He added that he received the board's resolution only 50 minutes before the meeting was set to begin, and that his repeated requests — even for a few hours — to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel were refused.

404 Media was the first outlet to report the development. Sources told 404 Media that Schneider, who led Automattic as CEO from 2006 to 2014, confirmed the action was initiated by the board. In an emailed statement, Automattic told TechCrunch that Mullenweg is on leave, that Davies will lead as interim CEO, and that the board backs Davies and the team's ability to carry out the company's priorities.

Neither Mullenweg's message nor the company's statement explained why the board acted.

The WordPress project says it is unaffected

Mary Hubbard, executive director of the WordPress open-source project, posted a message to the WordPress.org community confirming Mullenweg's changed status at the commercial company. She stressed that WordPress.org itself is not affected, saying that Mullenweg remains the leader of the WordPress project and that her role, the teams and their priorities continue as planned, according to TechCrunch.

A tenure marked by conflict

The move follows years of turmoil. Automattic has been in litigation with hosting competitor WP Engine since October 2024, when WP Engine sued the company and Mullenweg for defamation and abuse of power. The suit came after Mullenweg accused WP Engine of profiting from the open-source project without contributing back, and demanded it pay 8% of its monthly gross revenue as a royalty for using the WordPress brand. Automattic filed counterclaims, and in February WP Engine claimed Automattic intended to pursue royalty claims against ten more competitors.

Inside the company, Mullenweg told employees in 2024 to take severance and leave if they disagreed with him; 159 did. He later threatened to deactivate the WordPress.org accounts of several community members after two of them said they planned to spearhead a fork of the project. In April 2025, Automattic laid off 16% of its staff, including employees who had been with the company for more than a decade, sources told TechCrunch.

Mixed reactions and unanswered questions

Reactions among staff appear split. A source told TechCrunch that some employees described themselves as ecstatic or relieved, while others had mixed feelings because the change adds further instability. No one has publicly explained the board's reasoning. One person speculated to TechCrunch that the timing might be connected to Mullenweg's annual trip to the Burning Man festival — this year's event ended on September 7 — after which he tends to return with new plans. Mullenweg did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

Why it matters

A board stripping its own founder of the CEO role against his will is unusual at any company, and rarer still at one whose founder also leads the open-source project at its core. The immediate result is a split leadership structure: Davies runs the commercial business while Mullenweg retains leadership of WordPress.org and the wider project. That distinction matters to an ecosystem of hosts, plugin developers and site owners, many of whom have followed the WP Engine dispute and community fallout closely. With litigation unresolved, an interim CEO in place and no stated reason for the decision, both Automattic's legal posture and its relationship with the WordPress community now face a period of uncertainty.