Founder CEO Sidelined as Automattic Board Votes Him Out
The most famous founder CEO in open-source software lost control of his own company on Wednesday. Automattic’s board voted in favor of putting Matt Mullenweg on paid leave. Mark Davies, Chief Financial Officer, steps up as interim chief executive at the business that owns WooCommerce, Tumblr and WordPress.com.
Mullenweg founded the business in 2003 and opposed the vote. Writing in a Slack channel with everyone in the company, he said the resolution landed in his hands with 50 minutes to spare, and that he was turned down each time he asked for a window to consult independent legal counsel.
What the Board Did and How Fast
Four directors carried the decision. Mullenweg named Davies alongside Sue Decker, Toni Schneider, and Ann Dunwoody, and said they had arranged the vote without telling him.
Schneider is hardly an outsider here. He ran Automattic as chief executive between 2006 and 2014, and 404 Media, which had the story first, cited people saying he confirmed the directors started this.
Automattic’s own statement was brief and offered no reason. It confirmed that Mullenweg is on leave, named Davies as interim chief executive, and said directors back him and the wider team.
Mullenweg Keeps Two Things
He remains a director. Davies told staff that Mullenweg still sits on the board, which is an unusual arrangement for an executive removed from operational control.
He also keeps this open-source project. WordPress executive director Mary Hubbard told the WordPress.org community that the project is unaffected and that Mullenweg continues to lead it while she continues in her role.
That split is the detail founders should study. The commercial entity and open-source project were always separate structures, and only one of them had a board that could vote.
The Backdrop the Board Inherited
Automattic has spent two years in conflict. The company is still in the midst of litigation with hosting competitor WP Engine, a dispute rooted in Mullenweg’s claim that the rival profited from WordPress while giving nothing back. His remedy was a trademark royalty set at 8% of what the company grosses each month.
The hosting company filed suit that October, in 2024, arguing it had been defamed and that Automattic had abused its position. Counterclaims followed a year later, and this February, WP Engine said the company intended to press royalty demands on ten further rivals.
Internal turbulence ran alongside the legal fight, as the table below shows.
| Event | Detail |
|---|---|
| WP Engine lawsuit filed | October 2024, over alleged abuse of position and defamation |
| Severance offer to dissenting staff | 159 employees accepted and left in 2024 |
| Layoffs | During April of 2025, 16% of staff was cut |
| Leadership change | CFO named interim CEO, September 2026 |
Why This Matters to Founder Led Companies
Board seats are not decoration. Once outside investors and independent directors hold a majority, the person who started the company serves at their discretion, regardless of how closely the brand is tied to their name.
Founders often learn this late. The cap table gets negotiated carefully while board composition is treated as an administrative detail, and the second one is what decides who keeps the job. Anyone thinking about CEO succession planning should note the contrast between a choreographed handoff and a 50 minute notice.
The reputational math also shifted. Litigation that a founder frames as principle can look to directors like an uninsurable liability, particularly once it stretches across two years.
What Founders Should Do This Week
Read your own governance documents. Find out who can call a board meeting, as well as what notice period applies. Also, identify whether removing an officer requires a simple majority or something higher.
Then count the votes as they stand today. Write out every director, who appointed them, and how a contested question would break, because that exercise takes twenty minutes and most founders have never done it.
Finally, look at dependencies you cannot vote on. Automattic’s fight has always partly concerned control of shared infrastructure, and the same exposure appears whenever a business rests on a platform it does not own, which is the ordinary shape of vendor lock in. The company’s own corporate profile still describes a business built on giving its main product away, which is the tension the board now has to manage.
What Is Still Unresolved
Nobody has explained the timing. The board gave no reason publicly, and employees are reading the silence in very different ways, with some reportedly relieved and others unsettled by the instability.
The WP Engine case is the obvious pressure point. An interim chief executive drawn from the finance side has different incentives in a settlement conversation than a founder defending a principle.
Watch whether the interim tag comes off. A CFO who stabilizes a company through a lawsuit often becomes the permanent choice. And if that happens, the workplace culture question becomes whether staff follow the new leadership or the departed founder.
Questions Founders Are Asking About Board Removals
Can a board remove a founder as CEO?
Yes, where the board holds the required votes. Founders keep the role only while directors support it. These standards are set by governance documents rather than by who started the company.
Does removal mean losing equity?
No. Shares are separate from the executive role. However, unvested equity and severance depend on the terms of the employment agreement.
Who is running Automattic now?
Chief financial officer Mark Davies is serving as interim chief executive following the board vote.
How can a founder protect their position?
Through board composition and share class structure negotiated during fundraising. Both are far harder to change once outside investors hold a majority.
