Matt Mullenweg has been removed from his role as CEO of Automattic and put on paid leave. The board of directors at the company have replaced him with the Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies. Mullenweg only had 50 minutes advance notice of the vote and his request to have the action reviewed by legal counsel was denied.
Update
Automattic has provided an official statement:
“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.”
Matt Mullenweg Still In Control Of WordPress
Mary Hubbard, the Executive Director of WordPress, tweeted an announcement to assert that Matt remains in control of the WordPress project and that nothing has changed in that regard.
She wrote:
“Following reports of Matt’s role change at Automattic, I want to assure you that WordPress leadership and direction remain unchanged. Matt continues to lead our project, and I remain Executive Director.
I’m grateful to everyone making this possible as we keep building together.”
Mullenweg Accuses Board Of Conspiring Against Him
According to reports, Mullenweg accused the Automattic CFO of conspiring behind his back with the board of directors. He also said that his request to have the decision delayed by a few hours was rejected.
He was quoted as having written in an internal Slack announcement:
“And the biggest news: I won’t be able to make the ELT tomorrow… I received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting start, and requested repeatedly for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel, even a few hours, which was denied…”
After reportedly accusing the CFO of having conspired against him, Mullenweg later tweeted that he fully supports him in is “his interim CEO role.”
WordPress Is On The Back Foot
His ouster comes at a time of strong negative sentiment against Matt Mullenweg because of the disruption he initiated in his dispute with WP Engine.
Automattic faces a lawsuit from WP Engine that directly arises from his actions and a motion for sanctions that accuses Mullenweg of destroying or failing to preserve evidence. According to reports, Jonathan Robins (Automattic’s e-discovery vendor), claimed that Mullenweg’s laptop and a phone were unaccounted for.
The fallout from Mullenweg’s self-described “nuclear” war against WP Engine goes far beyond the lawsuit against him and Automattic, it has also resulted in the declining WordPress marketshare of content management systems (CMS) and steadily declining attendance at WordCamp, the WordPress community’s conference series.
All of this comes at a time a of a painful slow-motion decline of the WordPress plugin ecosystem where many plugin developers are seeing their paid user base declining and an increase in the discovery of vulnerabilities, both due to AI.
Matt Mullenweg’s Response
Mullenweg posted a lighthearted tweet in response to today’s development:
Mullenweg’s Tweets Hint At Reasons For Removal As CEO
Mullenweg followed up his tweet hours later to discuss issues directly related to WP Engine’s motion for sanctions against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg. Part of the reasons for the motion for sanctions is that a laptop and a phone that may have contained evidence went missing and were never imaged.
Mullenweg tweeted:
“Y’all think I am making a big deal of this but this has literally been the top story on @therepositorywp for weeks…
However even though I have said this UNDER OATH AND PENALTY OF PERJURY over and over and over, the very-good-at-being-very-bad lawyers at
@quinnlarrabee have blown this so out of proportion. (actually @quinnemanuel but the typo is funny)That they have a pretty good chance of getting a judge to say I spoiled evidence in a malicious way trying to hide something. Which is extra funny if you actually know me, because I WRITE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO SAVE EVERYTHING.”
Mullenweg Wants To Remove “Stuff” From Automattic
Mullenweg then stated that he has “stuff” hosted at Automattic that he wants to remove from there.
He tweeted:
“I really need some great sysadmin and security researchers to hire really quick, no one from @automattic! I’m on the board there and fully support Mark Davies in his interim CEO role. But I think it’s probably good if I move some of my stuff currently hosted there, elsewhere.”
Awkward Explanations
He then circled back to explaining why he solicited information using disappearing messages:
“But I won’t make the same mistake I made last time, when I was talking about the evils of private equity like
@LeeEWittlinger at @silverlake_news and how they will try to destroy your life. I’ve learned so much!I said how they’re brutal and linked the Barbarians at the Gate book… That’s not the mistake yet…
Specifically this Tweet:
For the people sending me stuff from inside companies, please do not do it on your work device. Use a personal phone, Signal with disappearing messages, etc. I have a bunch of journalists happy to connect you with as well. #wcus
He then explained why he had asked people to send him “stuff” from inside companies:
“One of my (many) weaknesses is I actually want to be a journalist, so I was trying to cosplay like my late best friend @Om and set up a tip line. But it’s actually against the law to have disappearing messages when you have a preservation order.”
Mullenweg did not say that the reason for his paid leave from Automattic had anything to do with the allegations against him about hiding evidence from WP Engine. But it sure seemed to be on his mind.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/jesadaphorn
