Automattic’s board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
- ID
- 22981
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 10 Sep 2026, 7:14 AM
- Fetched
- 10 Sep 2026, 7:30 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/automattics-board-forces-ceo-matt-mullenweg-into-leave-of-absence/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 10 Sep 2026, 7:32 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
Automattic's board voted to force founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg into a paid leave of absence against his will, installing CFO Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg revealed the move in a company-wide Slack message, naming board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker as voting for the resolution, which he received only 50 minutes before the meeting. WordPress.org executive director Mary Hubbard stated the open-source project is unaffected and Mullenweg remains its leader, while Mullenweg also remains on Automattic's board of directors.
Why it matters
If you build on WordPress, the key practical detail is the stated separation: WordPress.org (open-source) claims continuity under Mullenweg and Hubbard, while Automattic (commercial, WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce) is now under interim CEO Davies with no stated reason for the board action. Anyone relying on Automattic commercial products should watch for policy or pricing changes under new leadership, and WordPress agencies should note the governance split between the two entities is now sharper than ever.
Discussion angle
The real story for builders is the governance fault line: one person controls the open-source project while the board controls the commercial company — what does that mean for the long-term alignment of WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and the .org ecosystem, and should anyone building a business on WordPress reconsider their dependency?