Overview
- The company’s board voted to place CEO and co‑founder Matt Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence and named Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies interim CEO after a board meeting Wednesday.
- Mullenweg posted in an internal Slack message that he was given about 50 minutes' notice before the resolution, that his requests for independent legal review were denied, and that Davies and several board members had conspired to remove him.
- Automattic has confirmed Mullenweg is on leave and that Davies is serving as interim CEO, while Mullenweg remains a member of the board.
- WordPress.org’s executive director said the open‑source project and its leadership are unaffected, but staff reports of deactivated Slack accounts and disputed admin changes have left control of some company systems unclear.
- The change comes against a backdrop of long‑running legal fights and internal tensions, most notably the ongoing lawsuit with WP Engine, and could affect operations, staff morale, and relations across the WordPress ecosystem.