Matt Mullenweg Reclaims Automattic CEO Role Amid Board Drama and Questions Over Official Statement

Automattic confirmed Matt Mullenweg's return as CEO on September 12 after a turbulent week that saw him ousted by his own board and locked out of company systems — but not its Slack workspace.

The reinstatement caps one of the most publicly chaotic leadership crises in WordPress history. The episode raised serious questions about corporate governance at one of the internet's most influential companies and left the broader WordPress community divided over what it all means for the open web's future.

---

From Ousted Founder to Slack Takeover

On Wednesday, September 9, Automattic's board placed Mullenweg on paid leave for unspecified reasons and installed CFO Mark Davies as interim CEO. According to reports, Mullenweg received just fifty minutes' notice before the board meeting, and his request for time to consult an attorney was denied.

Automattic issued a formal three-sentence statement confirming the change:

"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."

What followed was anything but orderly. Automattic had failed to remove Mullenweg from the company's Slack workspace. He moved quickly — removing admins and announcing he was back in control.

By Friday, September 11, Mullenweg was posting inside Slack claiming to have retaken the reins. The claims were unsupported by any official statement from Automattic at that point. TechCrunch captured the uncertainty with a headline that asked whether Mullenweg was telling staff he was back in charge — or simply trolling them.

Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress, moved to clarify the situation on social media. "I'm relieved and pleased to see Matt Mullenweg return as CEO of Automattic, the largest financial contributor to the WordPress project," she tweeted. "Having WordPress's co-founder and Project Lead at the helm gives me confidence that their support will remain strong. Matt has my support."

Her statement was widely interpreted as confirmation that Mullenweg had regained real authority — though questions about the precise scope of that authority lingered through the weekend.

Why Slack Access Became the Flashpoint

The fact that Mullenweg retained access to Automattic's internal Slack workspace was not a minor oversight — it became the operational lever through which the entire reversal unfolded. In distributed companies, where Slack functions as the de facto office, controlling that environment carries outsized symbolic and practical weight. Losing it meant the board's governance action was, in effect, incomplete from the moment it was announced.

---

A Tale of Two Statements

The official confirmation arrived just after 5 PM EST on Saturday, September 12. It read:

"Matt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, with full support of the board and if you search online you can see many top executives and Automatticians supporting him as well."

The contrast with the first statement was immediate and striking. The original announcement followed a formal corporate structure — third-person voice, precise language and three clearly distinct sentences covering Mullenweg's status, Davies's appointment and the board's confidence in the transition.

The second statement reads nothing like it. It arrives as a single run-on sentence written in an informal register that invites readers to independently verify the claim rather than simply asserting it as fact. Observers noted that the tone and word choices suggest the two statements may have been authored by entirely different people — raising the unresolved question of who actually wrote Automattic's confirmation of its own CEO.

A Crisis Communications Case Study

For communications professionals, the contrast between these two statements is instructive. Corporate crisis communications depends on consistency — of voice, structure and authority. When the statement confirming a CEO's reinstatement reads markedly differently from the statement announcing their removal, it introduces doubt precisely where clarity is most needed. The second statement's casual invitation to "search online" as evidence of legitimacy is particularly unusual, shifting the burden of verification onto the reader rather than the organisation making the claim.

The episode offers a practical lens through which to examine how tone and authorship signal — or undermine — credibility during a leadership crisis. Companies that understand the benefits of a well-structured content management system and governance infrastructure are generally better positioned to maintain consistent, authoritative communications when it matters most.

---

Employees Rally While Skeptics Push Back

Mullenweg used the moment to amplify supportive voices from inside Automattic. He reposted a wave of employee tweets to his own social accounts, effectively burying commentary that had been critical of his leadership.

Long-time employee @jamesgrierson spoke directly to the relationship's depth. "I have worked alongside @photomatt first as a contributor and sponsor for 10 years while at Bluehost and then as a co-worker at Automattic for the last 10 years," he tweeted. "The future of Automattic and WordPress are bright and I am excited for the next 10 years."

Employee @batuhan offered a window into how Mullenweg operates internally. "Matt always tries to do what's best for the community. His passion and love for open source and the WordPress movement and its community is the same as it always been. As someone who has been building a new product at Automattic, the top questions I get from people here are always how does this help the open web and how does it help WordPress. That's also what Matt asked me when I first pitched Spacefast. And it wasn't an optional question."

Not everyone outside Automattic was moved. @cagdasdagg offered a pointed observation about the flood of employee endorsements: "Welcome to the annual Automattician competition to see who loves Matt the most. I'm genuinely curious who asks for this every year?"

The comment reflected a broader skepticism within parts of the WordPress community who are not employed by Automattic and who watched the week's events with some unease about what the instability signals for the platform's long-term direction.

What the Community Response Reveals

The divergence between internal enthusiasm and external skepticism is itself significant. Automattic and the broader WordPress ecosystem are not the same thing, even though they are deeply intertwined. WordPress powers more than 40 percent of the web, and the organisations, developers and independent contributors who build on it have a stake in Automattic's stability that is entirely separate from their employment relationship with the company. When that community expresses unease, it warrants attention beyond the internal dynamics of one leadership reversal.

Maintaining robust, independent infrastructure is one reason many developers and agencies pay close attention to the security and resilience of their own WordPress environments. Reviewing your WordPress website security practices and protocols is a prudent step for any organisation whose operations depend on the platform, regardless of who sits in Automattic's executive chair.

---

What This Means and What to Watch

The episode closes — at least for now — with Mullenweg back in his seat and the board publicly aligned behind him. But the unresolved details matter. The reasons for the original ouster have never been disclosed. The authorship and authenticity of the second official statement remain unclear. And the speed with which a governance action was reversed raises questions about the strength of Automattic's internal oversight structures.

For businesses and developers building on WordPress — which powers more than 40 percent of the web — the leadership stability of Automattic is not an abstract concern. It directly shapes the resourcing, direction and reliability of the platform they depend on. Organisations that rely on WordPress for customer-facing operations, including those using a WordPress CRM plugin to manage customer relationships, should be particularly attentive to how governance decisions at Automattic filter through to plugin support, core development priorities and ecosystem partnerships.

Three Practical Responses for WordPress Stakeholders

Readers following this story can apply it in concrete terms:

1. If your business depends on WordPress infrastructure, treat this episode as a prompt to review your contingency planning and hosting diversification. Single points of failure in your platform dependencies deserve scrutiny.

2. Communications professionals can study the contrast between Automattic's two official statements as a case study in how tone and authorship signal credibility — or the absence of it — during a crisis.

3. Open-source contributors and ecosystem partners should monitor whether Mullenweg's return produces any formal policy or governance changes at Automattic in the weeks ahead. Those decisions will shape the WordPress roadmap more than any single leadership headline.

For further context on how the broader WordPress governance debate has evolved, the official WordPress News channel remains a primary source worth monitoring as events develop.