After a tumultuous week, which noticed WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg ousted from his place as CEO of Automattic, WordPress.com’s dad or mum firm, by means of a board vote, the corporate has now issued a press release confirming that Mullenweg has returned to his place.
“Matt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, with full assist of the board and when you search on-line you’ll be able to see many high executives and Automatticians supporting him as nicely,” an organization spokesperson shared with TechCrunch by way of e-mail simply after 5 PM ET on Saturday night. (The point out of on-line assist seems to consult with supportive posts on X that Mullenweg has been reposting from his X account.)
Automattic’s board had voted earlier this week to put Mullenweg on a paid depart of absence for unknown causes. The transfer seemingly got here as a shock to Mullenweg, who posted on Automattic’s Slack, accusing the board members of “conspiring” towards him.
Automattic confirmed Mullenweg’s elimination to TechCrunch on Wednesday, saying that Mullenweg was “presently on depart” and that Automattic’s Chief Monetary Officer, Mark Davies, would lead as interim CEO with “full confidence” of the board.
Nevertheless, the board’s plan didn’t go easily. Seemingly declining to depart, Mullenweg booted different admins out of the corporate Slack and informed staff all the pieces had been labored out and that he was again answerable for Automattic, a number of sources informed TechCrunch. At one level, he additionally posted to Slack, “I’m a pirate now” and cursed, which is one thing Mullenweg famously didn’t do. “If that is an HR drawback, please wrangle me in since my regular wranglers are with Mark Davies,” he wrote.
When TechCrunch requested Mullenweg if his feedback about being again as CEO had been respectable, he promised a weblog put up was coming. When it arrived, nonetheless, it was about him shopping for a houseboat. After we requested if his feedback about being again had been additionally him trolling, he replied, “I’m not a troll I’m a pirate, clearly.” Mullenweg by no means offered any official remark about his return, however famous on X that this was probably the fifth time he’s confronted a “coup.”
Automattic additionally didn’t reply to repeated requests for touch upon Friday, nor to stories we heard about board member Toni Schneider stepping down. Schneider, a founding CEO of Automattic, now leads Bluesky. He didn’t return requests for remark at his private e-mail or by way of requests despatched to Bluesky.
Now we have since requested Automattic once more about this and different modifications to the board’s composition, which we’re listening to nonetheless could also be in flux.
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