WordPress parent Automattic's three directors who voted to place CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave are all gone after a 33-hour standoff, with Mullenweg back in control, the CFO and chief legal officer dismissed, and an entirely new board installed.
The episode began on September 9, when Automattic's board voted to place Mullenweg — the WordPress co-creator and the company's longtime leader — on paid leave and named CFO Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg alleged the board had "conspired" against him and said he was denied time to have independent counsel review the resolution. It did not last: the arrangement ran exactly 33 hours and 20 minutes before Mullenweg told staff he was back in charge. His leverage was structural — he controls roughly 84% of Automattic's voting shares — and political: he said hundreds of senior employees had messaged him threatening to resign or follow him to his next venture. "For purposes of Delaware law, I am the CEO, President, Treasurer, and Secretary," he told staff, calling the board's move a "coup."
The purge that followed was total. Toni Schneider, Automattic's founding CEO who now leads Bluesky, resigned his board seat; Sue Decker, a director since March 2020, also resigned; and Mullenweg removed retired U.S. Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody from her seat. On the executive side, Davies — who had briefly held the top job — was let go along with chief legal officer Andy Missan. During the 33-hour interim, Davies and Missan had signed reciprocal severance agreements for each other worth a combined $8.15 million, with 12 months of base salary, accelerated equity vesting and extended health coverage; Automattic's lawyers must now decide whether to honor deals two departing executives wrote for each other in the final hours of a leadership fight.
Mullenweg then rebuilt the board in his own image. The new directors, confirmed in late September, include "Silo" author Hugh Howey, author and podcaster Amy Chan, and Henry Khachatryan and Krutal Desai — co-founders of the social app IRL, which shut down after an investigation found roughly 95% of its claimed users were bots. New advisers include KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah, former Whoop CTO Jaime Waydo and June co-founder Matt Van Horn.
"We are living through times of unprecedented change, possibly a singularity," Mullenweg told staff. "The next six months will determine the next 20 years of Automattic." The reason for the original board vote has never been disclosed — leaving the company that powers much of the web with new leadership, unanswered governance questions, and a founder more firmly in control than ever.