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Matt Mullenweg, the laminitis and CEO of Automattic, champion known arsenic the genitor institution of WordPress.com, has been enactment connected a permission of lack by his committee against his will, according to a Slack connection seen by TechCrunch.
Earlier Wednesday, Mullenweg posted successful a Slack transmission disposable to each employees that the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mark Davies, had “conspired” with different committee members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker to ballot to enactment Mullenweg connected a paid permission of absence.
The connection read:
And the biggest news: I won’t beryllium capable to marque the [meeting] tomorrow. @Mark Davies has conspired with @Ann Dunwoody, @Toni, and @Sue Decker down my backmost and they voted to enactment maine connected a paid permission of absence. I voted against that. Wishing Mark and each of you the precise best.
To clarify @Mark Davies was voted arsenic interim CEO. I received the solution 50 minutes earlier the gathering start, and requested repeatedly for clip to person it reviewed by autarkic ineligible counsel, adjacent a fewer hours, which was denied.
A Slack connection to the open-source WordPress.org assemblage from the project’s enforcement director, Mary Hubbard, besides confirmed Mullenweg’s alteration of presumption astatine the commercialized company. However, Hubbard said that WordPress.org was not impacted. “Matt remains the person of the WordPress task and I stay Executive Director of WordPress. Our teams, priorities, and enactment proceed arsenic planned,” she wrote.
Mullenweg’s Slack connection did not marque wide wherefore Automattic’s committee took this action. Sources told 404 Media, which was the archetypal to study the news, that Schneider — the erstwhile CEO of Automattic from 2006 to 2014 — confirmed that the enactment was initiated by the board. Davies besides told employees successful the Slack transmission that Mullenweg remained connected the committee of directors.
In an emailed connection to TechCrunch, Automattic confirmed Mullenweg was connected leave.
“Matt Mullenweg is presently connected permission from Automattic,” the email read. “Mark Davies, Automattic’s CFO, volition pb the institution arsenic interim CEO. The Board has afloat assurance successful Mark’s enactment and successful the team’s quality to execute against the company’s priorities.”
Automattic, which owns different brands including Tumblr, WooCommerce, and Pocket Casts, was founded by Mullenweg successful 2003 aft helium co-created the fashionable open-source contented absorption strategy WordPress.
Over the past fewer years, Mullenweg and the institution person been mired successful lawsuits and controversy. The institution is successful a protracted ineligible conflict with WP Engine, a WordPress web hosting competitor. The suit followed allegations from Mullenweg that WP Engine was profiting from the open-source WordPress task without contributing backmost to the community, and helium demanded it wage 8% of its monthly gross gross arsenic a royalty interest for utilizing the WordPress brand.
WP Engine sued in October 2024, and accused Automattic and Mullenweg of defamation and maltreatment of power. Automattic filed counterclaims last year. In February, WP Engine claimed that Automattic intended to people 10 much competitors with royalty claims.
Tensions became truthful precocious nether Mullenweg’s enactment that he told employees successful 2024 to quit, with severance, if they disagreed with him and 159 did so.
Last year, Mullenweg also threatened to deactivate the accounts of several members of the open-source WordPress.org community, aft 2 of them said they planned to spearhead a caller forked mentation of the unfastened root WordPress project.
In April 2025, the institution laid disconnected 16% of its staff. The cuts included immoderate longtime employees who had been with the institution for much than a decade, sources told TechCrunch.
Some alumni person been asking existent employees however they consciousness astir the news, a root told TechCrunch. Some employees said they were “ecstatic” oregon “relieved” but others had mixed emotions due to the fact that the determination creates much instability.
It isn’t wide wherefore the company’s committee made this determination now. One idiosyncratic speculated that the timing whitethorn person thing to bash with Mullenweg’s yearly travel to the Burning Man festival, aft which helium tends to instrumentality “with ideas.” This year’s festival ended connected September 7.
Mullenweg did not instantly respond to our petition for comment.
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