Matt Mullenweg, the founder and chief executive of Automattic, has been placed on paid leave by the company’s board and replaced temporarily by its chief financial officer, Mark Davies.
The decision was disclosed by Mr Mullenweg in a message to Automattic employees on Wednesday. He said he had opposed the move and claimed the board had acted without giving him sufficient time to obtain independent legal advice.
“Mark Davies has conspired with Ann Dunwoody, Toni, and Sue Decker behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence,” Mr Mullenweg wrote in the Slack message.
He added that Mr Davies had been appointed interim chief executive and said he had received the board resolution 50 minutes before a meeting was due to begin.
Automattic confirmed the change, saying: “Matt Mullenweg is currently on leave from Automattic. Mark Davies, Automattic’s CFO, will lead the company as interim CEO. The Board has full confidence in Mark’s leadership and in the team’s ability to execute against the company’s priorities.”
Mr Davies told employees that Mr Mullenweg would remain on Automattic’s board. The company has not publicly explained why the board took the decision at this point.
WordPress project unaffected
Automattic owns WordPress.com, as well as brands including Tumblr, WooCommerce and Pocket Casts. Mr Mullenweg founded the company in 2003 after co-creating WordPress, the open-source content management system.
Mary Hubbard, executive director of the separate WordPress.org project, said the leadership change at Automattic would not affect its work.
“Matt remains the leader of the WordPress project and I remain Executive Director of WordPress. Our teams, priorities, and work continue as planned,” she said in a message to the WordPress.org community.
The move follows a period of growing tension around Mr Mullenweg’s leadership and Automattic’s relationship with parts of the WordPress ecosystem.
Automattic is involved in a legal dispute with WP Engine, a competing WordPress hosting company. The dispute began after Mr Mullenweg accused WP Engine of benefiting from WordPress without making a sufficient contribution to the open-source project, and demanded a royalty equivalent to 8% of its monthly gross revenue for use of the WordPress brand.
WP Engine sued Automattic and Mr Mullenweg in October 2024, alleging defamation and abuse of power. Automattic later filed counterclaims, while WP Engine claimed in February that the company intended to pursue similar royalty demands against 10 other competitors.
In 2024, Mr Mullenweg also told employees who disagreed with him that they could leave with severance packages. A total of 159 staff took up the offer, according to the company’s employees.
Automattic cut 16% of its workforce in April 2025, with the redundancies affecting some long-serving staff. The latest leadership change has prompted mixed reactions among employees, with some welcoming it while others expressed concern that it could create further uncertainty.
