The board of Automattic has placed founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave against his wishes and appointed chief financial officer Mark Davies as interim CEO. The company confirmed the leadership change to TechCrunch but did not disclose why the board took the action.
Mullenweg announced the decision Wednesday in a companywide Slack channel, accusing Davies and board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker of acting behind his back. He said he voted against the resolution and received it only 50 minutes before the board meeting began.
Mullenweg said he repeatedly requested more time so independent legal counsel could review the resolution, but the request was denied. Davies told employees that Mullenweg would remain on Automattic’s board of directors.
404 Media, which first reported the change, said Schneider confirmed that the action came from the board. Automattic said Davies would lead the company as interim CEO and that the board had full confidence in his leadership.
WordPress Leadership Remains Unchanged
The change at Automattic does not affect Mullenweg’s role in the separate open source WordPress project. WordPress.org executive director Mary Hubbard told the community that Mullenweg remains the project’s leader and that its teams, priorities and work would continue as planned.
Mullenweg co-created WordPress before founding Automattic in 2003. Automattic operates WordPress.com and owns brands including Tumblr, WooCommerce and Pocket Casts.
Decision Follows Years of Legal and Internal Disputes
The board has not said whether its decision is connected to Automattic’s continuing legal dispute with WP Engine. The conflict escalated after Mullenweg accused the hosting company of benefiting from WordPress without contributing enough to the open source community and sought 8% of its monthly gross revenue as a royalty for using the WordPress brand.
WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg in October 2024, accusing them of defamation and abuse of power. Automattic later filed counterclaims against WP Engine, while WP Engine claimed in February 2026 that Automattic had planned royalty demands against 10 additional competitors.
The conflict also created tension inside Automattic. In 2024, Mullenweg offered severance to employees who disagreed with him, and 159 employees accepted and left.
Automattic later cut 16% of its workforce in April 2025, including some longtime employees. Following Mullenweg’s leave, some current employees reportedly described themselves as “ecstatic” or “relieved,” while others had mixed reactions because the leadership change added uncertainty.
Mullenweg Responds on X
Mullenweg later posted several messages on X referring to the WP Engine litigation. He mentioned the possibility that a judge could find that he had maliciously spoiled evidence to hide information, an allegation he denied.
He also said he expected “smear attacks” and referred to his Nikon D6 camera being stolen and recovered a day later at Burning Man. Mullenweg said its memory card contained more than 2,000 photographs and claimed none could be used against him before sharing several images from the festival.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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