Automattic, the multi-billion-dollar parent company of WordPress.com, Tumblr, and WooCommerce, has executed an unprecedented clean sweep of its boardroom and C-suite after a failed attempt by directors to unseat Chief Executive Officer Matt Mullenweg. The upheaval, described by Mullenweg as an attempted coup, concluded with the dismissal of top executive leadership and the appointment of an unconventional slate of directors[3].
The swift reversal demonstrated the absolute corporate leverage retained by tech founders with super-voting shares. Mullenweg, who co-founded the open-source WordPress project and controls eighty-four percent of Automattic's voting power, neutralized his removal in less than a day and a half before wiping away nearly all checks on his executive authority.
The Thirty-Three-Hour Interregnum
The confrontation erupted on September 9, when a special committee formed by Automattic board members convened without Mullenweg's consent. The faction comprised retired four-star U.S. Army General Ann Dunwoody, former Yahoo President Sue Decker, founding Automattic CEO and current Bluesky chief executive Toni Schneider, and Automattic Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies. The group voted to place Mullenweg on mandatory paid administrative leave and installed Davies as interim chief executive[7].
As reported by Inc. and TechCrunch, Mullenweg was blindsided by the resolution, receiving it less than an hour before the meeting and being refused an extension to consult independent counsel. Davies promptly took to company-wide Slack channels to announce the interim appointment, while Automattic public communications initially asserted that the board had full confidence in Davies' ability to execute company priorities.
The interregnum lasted exactly thirty-three hours and twenty minutes. Recognizing that his super-voting equity endowed him with unilateral authority under Delaware law, Mullenweg executed shareholder consents overriding the committee's decree. By the end of that week, Mullenweg informed employees over Slack that he had retaken absolute control, swapping his internal avatar to an image featuring a pirate hat and eyepatch[9].
Founder advice: If you don't have a coup attempt every few years, you're not hiring strong enough leaders.
Matt Mullenweg, Automattic CEO, posting on X
Executive Terminations and the New Board Roster
Once his executive authority was reinstated, Mullenweg carried out sweeping reprisals. Davies was terminated from his role as chief financial officer, and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan was likewise dismissed. Reporting from TechCrunch confirmed that Dunwoody was formally removed from the board, while Schneider and Decker submitted their resignations.
In their place, Mullenweg assembled a markedly unconventional four-person board announced to company staff on September 25. The newly appointed directors include:
- Hugh Howey, the science fiction novelist behind the dystopian Silo series and a personal friend of Mullenweg[10];
- Amy Chan, author of Breakup Bootcamp, who has promoted Automattic publishing software tools;
- Henry Khachatryan and Krutal Desai, co-founders of IRL, an event and social networking application that collapsed in 2023 following revelations that ninety-five percent of its claimed user base consisted of automated bots[6].
Mullenweg informed staff that, under Delaware corporate statues, he now occupies the offices of CEO, President, Treasurer, and Secretary concurrently. To supplement corporate strategy, the company also brought on outside advisers, including Whoop former chief technology officer Jaime Waydo, June co-founder Matt Van Horn, and KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah.
The WP Engine Feud and Escalating Legal Exposure
While the previous board did not issue a public explanation for attempting to sideline Mullenweg, industry observers and legal analysts have tied the tensions to an intensifying war against managed WordPress host WP Engine. WP Engine, majority-owned by private equity titan Silver Lake, has been locked in an acrimonious battle with Mullenweg ever since he publicly branded the company a parasite and a cancer on the open-source community at an industry conference.
That dispute spiraled into federal litigation, encompassing trademark claims and claims of anticompetitive retaliation after Automattic restricted WP Engine customer access to WordPress.org software repositories. In court filings submitted in July, WP Engine's legal representation requested severe sanctions against Automattic, alleging Mullenweg had systematically destroyed digital evidence across private messaging services such as Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp[2].
Following his return, Mullenweg discarded Automattic's prior outside defense team, Gibson Dunn, and engaged prominent trial firm Susman Godfrey LLP, led by partners Stephen Shackelford and Shawn J. Rabin. Beyond the WP Engine defense, Susman Godfrey faces another internal mess: during the brief thirty-three-hour window when Mullenweg was sidelined, Davies and Missan reportedly authorized reciprocal eight-million-dollar severance agreements for one another, agreements that the reinstated chief executive is now challenging.
Internal Fractures and Governance Questions
The purge highlights an acute dilemma at the intersection of founder control and open-source stewardship. Powering over forty percent of the open web, WordPress relies on community goodwill alongside Automattic's commercial engine. Inside the company, Mullenweg's aggressive tactics have already sparked substantial attrition[14].
Following his early attacks on WP Engine, Mullenweg offered buyouts to employees who disagreed with his crusade, which prompted roughly eight percent of the staff to leave. Subsequent layoffs in 2025 further depleted Automattic's headcount from above two thousand to around fifteen hundred workers.
By replacing experienced corporate executives and military leadership with personal allies and authors, Mullenweg has eliminated any immediate risk of dissent inside the boardroom. Yet with heavy federal sanction hearings pending and millions spent monthly on attorneys, the consolidated command structure leaves Automattic with no buffer should Mullenweg's scorched-earth legal strategy backfire.