Matt Mullenweg has been reinstated as Chairman and CEO of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, according to a company spokesperson on Saturday evening, Sept. 12.
The move reverses a board decision made Wednesday that placed Mullenweg on paid leave and named Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies as interim CEO. The board's plan to remove Mullenweg did not hold. According to multiple sources, Mullenweg took control of the company's internal Slack channels, removed other administrators, and informed employees he was back in charge.
The episode raises governance questions at a company valued at roughly $10 billion. Automattic's board composition appears unsettled: Toni Schneider, a founding CEO of Automattic and a board member, stepped down during the dispute. He now leads Bluesky.
Mullenweg's public behavior during the standoff was unusual. He posted cryptic messages to Slack, including "I'm a pirate now and cursed," and later responded to questions about whether he was joking by telling reporters, "I'm not a troll I'm a pirate, obviously." He also indicated on X that this was the fifth time he had faced an attempted ouster.
Autommatic declined to comment on the reasons for the board's initial move against Mullenweg or the circumstances of his reinstatement.
