{"id":3491817,"date":"2026-09-12T23:25:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/12\/automattic-verifies-that-mullenweg-has-re-assumed-the-role-of-ceo-following-a-boards-attempted-removal\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T23:25:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:25:38","slug":"automattic-verifies-that-mullenweg-has-re-assumed-the-role-of-ceo-following-a-boards-attempted-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/12\/automattic-verifies-that-mullenweg-has-re-assumed-the-role-of-ceo-following-a-boards-attempted-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"Automattic verifies that Mullenweg has re-assumed the role of CEO following a board’s attempted removal."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Following a chaotic week where WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg was removed from his role as CEO of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, by a board vote, the organization has released a statement affirming Mullenweg’s reinstatement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, enjoying the complete backing of the board; if you look online, you will find numerous prominent leaders and Automatticians rallying behind him,\u201d a company representative communicated to TechCrunch via email shortly after 5 PM ET on Saturday. (The reference to online backing seems to point to supportive messages on X that Mullenweg has been resharing from his X account.) <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Automattic\u2019s board had voted to place Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence for reasons that remain unclear. This decision appeared unexpected to Mullenweg, who criticized the board on Automattic\u2019s Slack, alleging that board members were \u201cconspiring\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

Automattic confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday that Mullenweg had been \u201ctemporarily removed\u201d and that Mark Davies, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, would step in as interim CEO with the \u201cfull trust\u201d of the board.<\/p>\n

However, events did not unfold as planned for the board. Seemingly refusing to step down, Mullenweg removed other administrators from the company Slack and informed employees that issues had been resolved and that he had regained control over Automattic, according to multiple sources who spoke to TechCrunch. At one point, he also mentioned on Slack, \u201cI\u2019m a pirate now\u201d and used profanity, a departure from his usual demeanor. \u201cIf this is an HR issue, please rein me in as my usual overseers are with Mark Davies,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

When TechCrunch inquired if his statements about resuming the role of CEO were sincere, he assured that a blog post would be forthcoming. However, when it was published, it discussed his purchase of a houseboat. When asked if his comments regarding his return were also meant as a joke, he replied, \u201cI\u2019m not a troll I\u2019m a pirate, obviously.\u201d Mullenweg did not make any formal statement regarding his comeback but remarked on X that this was likely the fifth occasion he had encountered a \u201ccoup.\u201d <\/p>\n

Automattic also did not respond to repeated inquiries for comments on Friday, nor to reports suggesting that board member Toni Schneider was resigning. Schneider, a founding CEO of Automattic, currently heads Bluesky. He did not reply to requests for comments sent to his personal email or inquiries directed to Bluesky. <\/p>\n

We have followed up with Automattic regarding this and other changes within the board\u2019s structure, which we are learning may still be in transition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n
\n

Following a chaotic week where WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg was removed from his role as CEO of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, by a board vote, the organization has released a statement affirming Mullenweg’s reinstatement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, enjoying the complete backing of the board; if you look online, you will find numerous prominent leaders and Automatticians rallying behind him,\u201d a company representative communicated to TechCrunch via email shortly after 5 PM ET on Saturday. (The reference to online backing seems to point to supportive messages on X that Mullenweg has been resharing from his X account.) <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Automattic\u2019s board had voted to place Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence for reasons that remain unclear. This decision appeared unexpected to Mullenweg, who criticized the board on Automattic\u2019s Slack, alleging that board members were \u201cconspiring\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

Automattic confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday that Mullenweg had been \u201ctemporarily removed\u201d and that Mark Davies, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, would step in as interim CEO with the \u201cfull trust\u201d of the board.<\/p>\n

However, events did not unfold as planned for the board. Seemingly refusing to step down, Mullenweg removed other administrators from the company Slack and informed employees that issues had been resolved and that he had regained control over Automattic, according to multiple sources who spoke to TechCrunch. At one point, he also mentioned on Slack, \u201cI\u2019m a pirate now\u201d and used profanity, a departure from his usual demeanor. \u201cIf this is an HR issue, please rein me in as my usual overseers are with Mark Davies,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

When TechCrunch inquired if his statements about resuming the role of CEO were sincere, he assured that a blog post would be forthcoming. However, when it was published, it discussed his purchase of a houseboat. When asked if his comments regarding his return were also meant as a joke, he replied, \u201cI\u2019m not a troll I\u2019m a pirate, obviously.\u201d Mullenweg did not make any formal statement regarding his comeback but remarked on X that this was likely the fifth occasion he had encountered a \u201ccoup.\u201d <\/p>\n

Automattic also did not respond to repeated inquiries for comments on Friday, nor to reports suggesting that board member Toni Schneider was resigning. Schneider, a founding CEO of Automattic, currently heads Bluesky. He did not reply to requests for comments sent to his personal email or inquiries directed to Bluesky. <\/p>\n

We have followed up with Automattic regarding this and other changes within the board\u2019s structure, which we are learning may still be in transition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3491818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3491817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3491817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3491817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3491817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3491817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}