According to an article by Roger Montti in Search Engine Journal entitled “WordPress Co-Founder Matt Mullenweg Ousted as CEO of Automattic”, the board of directors of Automattic is said to have removed Mullenweg from his post as CEO and placed him on paid leave. Mark Davies, who is the Chief Financial Officer, has been named interim CEO and will be in charge of the company’s operations during the transition of leadership.
Mullenweg said that he only got the board’s resolution 50 minutes before the meeting and was not given any more time to have it examined by independent legal counsel; even though at first he had accused Davies of working with the board behind his back, Mullenweg later made a public statement in support of him as interim CEO.
Automattic have confirmed that Mullenweg is on leave and stated that the board has full confidence in Davies’ leadership. Nevertheless, the change affects only Automattic; Mullenweg is said to still be in charge of the open-source WordPress project, and Mary Hubbard, who is the Executive Director of WordPress, has assured the community that the project’s leadership and direction are unchanged.
The change in leadership takes place at the same time as Automattic’s ongoing legal dispute with WP Engine, amid WP Engine’s accusations of missing devices and the possible failure to preserve evidence. Mullenweg has denied deliberately hiding or destroying any information.
Mullenweg has not stated whether these legal issues were the reason why he was dismissed, but in his various public posts after the announcement he did deal with the allegations. He has also made it clear that he plans to transfer some of the personal systems and information which are currently hosted by Automattic to other locations.