Automattic board puts WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg on leave; CFO Mark Davies interim CEO

Automattic has placed co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence, handing day-to-day leadership to chief financial officer Mark Davies on an interim basis. The move was first reported by 404 Media and confirmed by an Automattic spokesperson to The Verge, and it represents a sudden leadership rupture at the company behind WordPress.com.

What happened

According to 404 Media, Mullenweg broke the news himself in company-wide Slack messages viewed by the outlet, writing that board members had "conspired" behind his back to vote him onto leave. In an internal message quoted by The Verge, he wrote: "They voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that." He named Davies alongside board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker in connection with the vote.

Automattic spokesperson Megan Fox confirmed the decision in a statement to The Verge, saying Mullenweg "is currently on leave from Automattic" and that Davies "will lead the company as interim CEO," adding that the board has full confidence in Davies and in the team's ability to execute against the company's priorities.

Toni Schneider, posting on Automattic's internal message board according to 404 Media, framed the decision as the board asking Mullenweg "to step away from his CEO role and take a leave of absence," and said directors were confident Davies "will steer the ship well while Matt is away."

Per 404 Media, Mullenweg will remain on Automattic's board — a detail that leaves the co-founder with a seat at the table even as he loses the executive role, and one that sits awkwardly alongside his claim that he voted against his own removal.

A founder under pressure after two turbulent years

Mullenweg co-founded the WordPress project and has led Automattic as CEO since 2014, according to The Verge. The company operates WordPress.com and is closely entwined with the broader WordPress ecosystem, which powers a large share of the web.

The leave follows a turbulent stretch for the company. In 2024, Mullenweg waged a public pressure campaign against WP Engine, a prominent WordPress hosting company, a fight that divided the open-source community and ignited a legal battle that The Verge reports is still unresolved.

Neither the board nor the company has publicly explained the reason for the leave or how long it will last. Mullenweg's description of a conspiracy is his own characterization, and no independent account of the board's deliberations has been published.

Why it matters

WordPress is among the most widely deployed publishing platforms on the web, and Automattic sits at the center of its commercial operations. A change at the top of that company therefore ripples far beyond one firm's org chart, touching the ecosystems, plugins, hosts and millions of sites that depend on the platform.

The manner of the transition matters as much as the fact of it. A founder who says he was voted out against his will, yet remains on the board, creates an unusual governance dynamic for interim CEO Davies. How much practical authority Davies will hold, and whether the split between Mullenweg and the board deepens or heals, is an open question.

The timing also lands while litigation from the 2024 WP Engine conflict is still active, meaning the person who drove that dispute is now sidelined from the company's day-to-day leadership. For the WordPress community — still fractured by the events of the past two years — the open question is whether new leadership de-escalates the conflicts Mullenweg came to personify, or simply adds another layer of uncertainty to a project that much of the web depends on.