Automattic There has been a sudden change in the management team. The company disclosed that founder and CEO Matt Murrenwieg is currently on vacation, and the Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies will assume the temporary role of CEO. The company did not provide any specific reasons for this arrangement.
The company confirms the temporary succession arrangement.
TechCrunch cited a company email statement stating that the board of directors has made a decision regarding the current management arrangements and expressed "full confidence" in the leadership ability of Davies as well as the management team's capability to execute the company's key tasks.
It is reported that Mullenweg posted on the company's Slack channel earlier, stating that he received the relevant resolution about 50 minutes before the meeting began and opposed the decision. He also mentioned that he had requested time to allow an independent legal advisor to review the documents, but his request was not granted.
Still retains a directorship
Reports citing internal sources state that Davies indicated in employee communications that Mullenweg remains on the board of directors. Meanwhile, Mary Hubbard, the executive director of the WordPress open-source community, also stated in another message that the project operations of WordPress.org are not affected by this personnel change, and the existing team and work arrangements will continue to proceed.
This means that the adjustment currently mainly occurs at the level of the commercial company Automattic, and has not extended to the daily management of the WordPress open-source project.
Controversies have continued to accumulate in recent years.
Over the past few years, Mullenweg and Automattic have been embroiled in litigation and disputes. The legal dispute between the company and WordPress and its custodian service provider, WP Engine, has lasted for a long time. The dispute originated when Mullenweg accused the other party of profiting from the WordPress open-source ecosystem without giving corresponding contributions back to the community, and demanded that they pay a certain percentage of their monthly total revenue as a brand usage fee.
Thereafter, WP Engine filed a lawsuit in October 2024, accusing Automattic and Mullenweg of defamation and abuse of power. Automattic subsequently filed a counterclaim. In February of this year, WP Engine also stated that Automattic planned to make similar fee demands to more competitors.
In addition to external litigation, there was also obvious tension within the company. Reports mentioned that in 2024, Mullenweg told employees that if they did not agree with his direction, they could leave with compensation, and at that time, 159 people chose to leave. In April 2025, Automattic laid off another approximately 16% of its staff.
Employees have mixed reactions
According to TechCrunch, who cited sources familiar with the matter, this change has triggered different reactions among employees. Some employees feel relieved and even excited; others believe that this decision could bring new instability to the company.
As of now, the reasons why the board of directors has made this decision at this time have not been made public. Mullenweg himself has also not responded to the reports yet.
Additional information:404 Media was the first to report on this matter, followed by TechCrunch who claimed to have received confirmation via company email.
