Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Sidelined as Board Moves Without Him

A few weeks ago, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg was singing the praises of a board member's big new job as CEO of Bluesky, writing on his blog Aug. 7 that he was "very excited to see what they figure out."

That board member was Toni Schneider, Automattic's founding CEO and one of the longest-serving names on its board. On Sept. 9, Schneider was one of four board members who reportedly voted to put Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence — against his will, and, according to Mullenweg, without enough notice to consult a lawyer.

That's the gist of the sexy reporting from 404 Media, which broke the news this week.

The Automattic statement sent to CMSWire was far less sexy: "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."

The company did not confirm that the board actually ousted Mullenweg and did not respond to CMSWire's follow-up questions about the Slack messages attributed to Mullenweg and Davies, as reported by 404 Media in its breaking story. Mullenweg himself did not respond to CMSWire's request for comment.

UPDATE on Sept. 11: TechCrunch reported Mullemweg said he's back in control in a company Slack message.

The only public statement so far from Mullenweg came in the form of a Tweet:

Founder advice: If you don't have a coup attempt every few years, you're not hiring strong enough leaders.

— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) September 11, 2026

UPDATE on Sept. 12: Automattic first tells CMSWire Mullenweg is back as CEO.

Mullenweg: Automattic Board Made Decision 'Behind My Back'

Though there is no admission Automattic placed Mullenweg on leave, the industry reporting this week says otherwise.

Automattic's board voted Wednesday to place founder and CEO Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence, installing Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies as interim CEO, according to internal Slack messages first reported by 404 Media and confirmed by TechCrunch.

Mullenweg reportedly broke the news himself in a company-wide Slack channel, writing that Davies had "conspired" with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider and Sue Decker "behind my back," and that he'd voted against the resolution. He said he received the resolution just 50 minutes before the board meeting and was denied repeated requests for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel.

Davies told employees in the same channel that Mullenweg would remain on the board and retain "a voice in setting direction and making decisions." According to reports, Schneider confirmed the board initiated the action, writing that the board had asked Mullenweg "to step away from his CEO role and take a leave of absence." Davies, in his own message, wrote that nothing would change operationally and pledged to move forward "with transparency, communication, and teamwork."

Mary Hubbard, executive director of the separate WordPress.org open-source project, said (again, in the reported internal Slack message) that side of the business is unaffected: Mullenweg remains its leader, and "our teams, priorities, and work continue as planned."

Automattic is the commercial company; WordPress.org is the nonprofit-adjacent open-source project. Mullenweg's leave applies only to the former, it appears. 

Related Article: What's With the Open Source Drama Between WordPress and WP Engine?

Is Matt Mullenweg's Automattic Leave a Firing?

No — Automattic has been explicit that Mullenweg remains a board member with "a voice in setting direction." A paid leave of absence is a step short of termination, though several outside observers have questioned whether he returns to the CEO role.

A Familiar Cast, Now Turned Potential Adversaries

Schneider's role in the vote carries some history. Automattic hired Schneider as its first CEO in 2005 so Mullenweg — then in his early 20s — could focus on product while learning to run a larger organization. Mullenweg resumed the CEO title himself in January 2014 and replaced Schneider, who has remained on Automattic's board since, and in July 2026 became CEO of Bluesky, dropping the "interim" from his title.

Mullenweg wrote approvingly about the move at the time, noting Automattic's early investment in Bluesky and his excitement to see what he'd "figure out in open social protocols."

Two months later, Schneider was one of the votes against him.

Why Out Mullenweg Now, After Two Years of Turmoil?

Neither Automattic nor Mullenweg has stated a specific trigger. TechCrunch reported unconfirmed speculation tying the timing to Mullenweg's return from Burning Man, which ended Sept. 7, though that remains unverified.

"Burning Man really tests my mantra, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” But it’s true!" Mullenweg wrote on his blog Sept. 2. "For one week, it’s the most interesting art and technology playground in the world, creativity unbound. As a photographer, it’s a great place to test out new gear and processes. Here’s a few snaps from the opening days. The Temple is really special this year, very open, and the Man concept actually came from fellow Automattician, Zander Rose."

It should be noted Automattic did lay off 16% of its workforce in April of 2025. At the time, Mullenweg said the company needed to:

• Become more agile and responsive
• Break down silos that have created inefficiencies
• Focus on product quality, doing fewer things better
• Ensure a viable financial model for long-term success

Related Article: WordPress.com Enables AI Agents to Write & Manage Content

Commenter: Mullenweg's 'Unforced Error After Unforced Error'

Reaction across the WordPress and web-development community has been swift. On Hacker News, one widely upvoted comment called Mullenweg's run "unforced error after unforced error," while another questioned why the board waited this long given the scale of the disruption over the past two years.

SEO consultant and Webcology podcast co-host Kristine Schachinger, who has covered the Automattic-WP Engine dispute extensively on her podcast, wrote on LinkedIn that the move "should be a good thing," adding that in her view, Mullenweg "should have been removed a year ago."

WordPress maintenance specialist Mike Cottam, in a LinkedIn post comparing the situation to a British sitcom, argued the episode brings forth a structural risk: concentrating so much control over widely used software in one person is, in his words, "a sure-fire way to destabilise" it.  

The story generated extensive discussion on technology forums within hours of publication. That thread on Hacker News discussing the TechCrunch report drew more than 400 upvotes and close to 300 comments inside its first 20 hours. Reaction skewed critical of Mullenweg's recent leadership, though a minority of commenters defended him or questioned the board's timing.

What Commenters Are Saying About Matt Mullenweg's Paid Leave From Automattic

A sampling of individually attributed comments from the Hacker News discussion thread, reflecting a range of views. These are anonymous comments, not statements from confirmed sources, and are presented here as a snapshot of community sentiment.

Commenter	Comment	Stance
gkoberger	"He's been behind unforced error after unforced error as CEO"	Critical, but credits his legacy
reticulates	Called it "the right decision for the long term but the hard decision"	Supportive of the board
ChoosesBarbecue	"I am so curious why now, what changed?"	Neutral / questioning timing
bellowsgulch	Said businesses should ask "whether or not they need Wordpress anymore"	Critical of Mullenweg and WordPress
Arnt	Said reading the commit logs puts him "in the top few percent of CEOs"	Defends Mullenweg
solarkraft	"I'm a bit relieved," while crediting his past contributions	Mixed
ValentineC	Said they were surprised Mullenweg didn't hold "majority of the voting shares"	Neutral / governance question
tibbydudeza / nubinetwork	"Finally." / "Good riddance"	Critical

WordPress, By the Numbers

Whatever happens to Mullenweg, WordPress's footprint remains enormous. As of Sept. 10, WordPress powers 40.3% of all websites and 58.8% of sites with a known content management system, according to W3Techs, which tracks the top 10 million sites on the web. That's down from a 43.2% peak in December 2025 — a decline that accelerated notably in the first half of 2026, coinciding with the ongoing WP Engine litigation and broader questions about AI-driven site-building tools eating into WordPress's traditional base.

A Timeline of Matt Mullenweg and WordPress, 2003-2026

From a college dropout's fork of an abandoned blogging tool to a boardroom rupture at the company he built — key moments in Mullenweg's and WordPress's history, drawn from primary sources and established reporting.

Date	Event
May 27, 2003	Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little release the first version of WordPress, a fork of the abandoned blogging tool b2/cafelog, per Kinsta's history of the project.
2005	Mullenweg founds Automattic in San Francisco as WordPress's commercial arm, per Forbes.
Sept. 9, 2010	Automattic transfers the WordPress trademark to the newly created, nonprofit WordPress Foundation, which Mullenweg describes as a way to make WordPress's name "fully independent from any company" in a post on his own blog.
Aug. 12, 2019	Automattic acquires Tumblr from Verizon for a reported sum well under $20 million, a fraction of the $1.1 billion Yahoo originally paid, per TechCrunch.
Feb. 2021	Automattic raises a $288 million Series E led partly by BlackRock, later completing a $250 million share buyback that values the company at $7.5 billion, per Forbes.
Feb. 2024	Mullenweg takes a self-described three-month "sabbatical" from Automattic's CEO role — his first, self-initiated leave, distinct from the board-forced one in 2026.
Sept. 21-25, 2024	Mullenweg calls WP Engine "a cancer to WordPress" in a WordCamp US keynote, demands an 8% revenue royalty for trademark use, and blocks WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources.
Oct. 2-4, 2024	WP Engine sues Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging extortion and abuse of power. 159 employees — 8.4% of staff — take a severance buyout after disagreeing with Mullenweg's handling of the dispute, per TechCrunch.
Dec. 10, 2024	A federal judge grants WP Engine a preliminary injunction, ordering Automattic to restore its access to WordPress.org.
Jan. 2025	Mullenweg deactivates the WordPress.org accounts of several community contributors over an alleged forking effort, and disbands the WordPress Sustainability team.
April 2025	Automattic lays off 16% of its global workforce, citing a need to "improve productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest."
Feb. 2026	In a court filing, WP Engine alleges Automattic planned to target 10 more hosting competitors with similar trademark-royalty demands.
April 2026	Cloudflare launches EmDash, calling it a WordPress "spiritual successor"; Mullenweg responds publicly and combatively, later softening his remarks.
Aug. 7, 2026	Mullenweg publicly praises board member Toni Schneider's new role as Bluesky's CEO on his personal blog, writing he's "very excited to see what they figure out."
June 3, 2026	WordPress's market share decline accelerates, dropping from 43.2% to 41.9% between December 2025 and May 2026 — double the prior year's pace, per Search Engine Journal.
Sept. 9, 2026	Automattic's board — including Schneider — votes to place Mullenweg on paid leave of absence; CFO Mark Davies named interim CEO.

What We Don't Know Yet About Matt Mullenweg's Paid Leave of Absence

Several questions remain open as of this writing: how long the leave will last, whether Mullenweg returns to the CEO role, and what specifically prompted the board to act now rather than at any prior flashpoint in the WP Engine saga. Automattic has not disclosed a timeline.

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