A rapid reversal at Automattic
Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg says he is back in control of the company, two days after its board placed him on paid leave and installed chief financial officer Mark Davies as interim chief executive. WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard also confirmed Mullenweg’s return in a social-media post shared by the official WordPress account.
The reported reversal emerged on September 13 through accounts of internal Slack messages and public posts. In a message seen by TechCrunch and summarized by The Verge, Mullenweg said the board was again in agreement and that he had resumed control. He acknowledged that substantial events during the preceding 48 hours still needed to be resolved and suggested some of the conflict might have been a misunderstanding.
Earlier in the week, Mullenweg told employees that the board had voted to put him on a leave of absence and appoint Davies on an interim basis. An Automattic spokesperson subsequently confirmed those arrangements to The Verge. Davies separately told staff at that stage that Mullenweg would retain his board seat.
The later messages indicate that the interim structure ended almost as quickly as it began. TechCrunch reported that Davies’ Slack account was deactivated and that Mullenweg removed the workspace’s administrators. Automattic did not immediately provide The Verge with a fresh response explaining the governance decision or Davies’ status after Mullenweg’s return.
Questions remain about governance
Mullenweg publicly characterized the turmoil as another attempted coup, writing on X that strong leadership teams periodically produce such challenges and describing this as his fifth. That is his characterization of the dispute, not an independently established account of the board’s motives. The supplied reporting does not include minutes of the board votes or a statement from individual directors explaining either decision.
The episode matters beyond the executive title because Automattic operates several widely used online services. Its portfolio includes WordPress.com, Tumblr and Beeper, while Mullenweg also holds a prominent role in the broader WordPress ecosystem. A sudden change in leadership, followed by a reversal, can affect staff authority and confidence even if products continue operating normally.
The sequence also leaves unresolved what authority Davies now holds, whether the board formally rescinded its earlier vote, and what changes may follow from the internal conflict. The evidence supplied for this report supports Mullenweg’s return and Hubbard’s confirmation, but not a definitive explanation for why the board changed course.
Until Automattic publishes a fuller account, the most precise description is that Mullenweg and a senior WordPress executive have said he is back as CEO after a short leave. Reports about deactivated accounts and administrator access offer signs of an operational transition, but they do not resolve the company’s underlying governance dispute.
