{"id":6897,"date":"2026-09-11T17:41:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6897"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:41:47","slug":"matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6897","title":{"rendered":"Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO two days after getting booted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Two days after being placed on a paid leave of absence, Matt Mullenweg says he has been reinstated as CEO of Automattic, according to a Slack message <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/09\/11\/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster\/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=bluesky\">seen by <em>TechCrunch<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">As <em>404 Media<\/em> reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence\/\">on Wednesday<\/a>, Mullenweg had told staff in Slack that CFO Mark Davies \u201cconspired\u201d with the board of directors, who voted to \u201cput me on a paid leave of absence.\u201d (Mullenweg said he voted against that.) He also told staff that the board had voted for Davies to become interim CEO. Davies, in a separate message, said that Mullenweg would still be a board member, according to <em>404 Media<\/em>. An Automattic spokesperson told <em>The Verge<\/em> that Mullenweg was \u201ccurrently on leave\u201d from the company and confirmed Davies\u2019 interim appointment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">In the message viewed by <em>TechCrunch<\/em>, however, Mullenweg wrote that the board is \u201cback in agreement\u201d and that he\u2019s \u201cin control of Automattic.\u201d He added that \u201cA lot happened in the past 48 hours that we need to sort out, and I hope much of it was a misunderstanding, because I have huge respect and regard for those involved.\u201d <em>TechCrunch<\/em> reports that Davies\u2019 Slack account has been deactivated and that Mullenweg had removed \u201call\u201d admins from Automattic\u2019s Slack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em>404 Media<\/em> also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/automattic-matt-mullenweg-back-in-control\/\">reported on<\/a> Mullenweg\u2019s posts about his apparent return, saying he made the posts \u201clate Thursday evening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Automattic, which owns companies like WordPress.com, Tumblr, and Beeper, didn\u2019t immediately reply to a request for comment from <em>The Verge<\/em>. At 12:20PM ET on Friday, Mullenweg <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/photomatt\/status\/2098446534677590301\">posted on X<\/a> that \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a coup attempt every few years, you\u2019re not hiring strong enough leaders,\u201d adding in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/photomatt\/status\/2098446535831023877\">separate post<\/a> that \u201cI think this was my fifth.\u201d Mullenweg also published a blog post on Friday titled <a href=\"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2026\/09\/mirene\/\">\u201cMajor Life Announcement\u201d<\/a> about making an offer to buy a houseboat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em><strong>Update, September 11th<\/strong>: Added <\/em>404 Media<em>\u2019s report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/994087\/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two days after being placed on a paid leave of absence, Matt Mullenweg says he has been reinstated as CEO of Automattic, according to a Slack message seen by TechCrunch. As 404 Media reported on Wednesday, Mullenweg had told staff in Slack that CFO Mark Davies \u201cconspired\u201d with the board of directors, who voted to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46,34,234],"class_list":["post-6897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-news","tag-tech","tag-web"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO two days after getting booted - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two days after being placed on a paid leave of absence, Matt Mullenweg says he has been reinstated as CEO of Automattic, according to a Slack message seen by TechCrunch.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6897\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO two days after getting booted - 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