Mullenweg Reclaims Automattic CEO Role After Board Ouster Attempt
Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted board ouster
Automattic has confirmed that Matt Mullenweg is back as CEO after the board voted to put him on paid leave earlier this week. Mullenweg refused to step down, removed other admins from Slack, and told staff he was in control. He later called himself a pirate and said this was likely the fifth coup he has faced. Board member Toni Schneider has reportedly stepped down.
I'm not a troll I'm a pirate, obviously.
- glenstein
Seems like nobody is actually reading the TFA which is a shame because what the article describes is truly mind boggling:
>However, the board’s plan did not go smoothly. Seemingly declining to depart, Mullenweg booted other admins out of the company Slack and told employees everything had been worked out and that he was back in control of Automattic
What the article is actually reporting is that no one at Automatic is giving a straight answer not that the board caved and reversed their decision.
- keiferski
I hope someone eventually does a deep-dive on the organizational structure of WordPress and how much of a mess it is.
As someone that’s pretty much worked in/with WP for my entire career, it’s always seemed like the worst of both worlds - distributed and slow-moving, yet still ultimately controlled to a massive extent by a single individual.
These kinds of absurd situations just slowly push people toward Shopify, other CMSes, etc. There will be no grand exodus, because too many companies are intertwined to the WP ecosystem. But combined with AI, the horrible design of Gutenberg, and half a dozen other things, I really worry for the future of WP. At this point I generally only recommend it to people that need something extremely customized. Other platforms are easier to use and don’t have the soap opera drama.
- BLKNSLVR
It does sound as if he has lost his grip on reality.
> When TechCrunch asked Mullenweg if his comments about being back as CEO were legitimate, he promised a blog post was coming. When it arrived, however, it was about him buying a houseboat. When we asked if his comments about being back were also him trolling, he replied, “I’m not a troll I’m a pirate, obviously.”
And if he's trolling, then I would argue that's also evidence towards having lost his grip on reality.
- dang
Recent and related:
Matt Mullenweg tells Automattic staff in Slack he's back in control after ouster - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49660104 - Sept 2026 (144 comments)
Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49636283 - Sept 2026 (372 comments)
(I know there have been many other threads in this long saga but I don't have the time (or the stomach) to try to list them)
p.s. We merged an earlier thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265) into this one, which is why the timestamps of some of the comments are older.
- bawolff
I don't say this lightly, but this sounds like someone going through a mental health crisis.
- fn-mote
This title would benefit from editorializing “of Automattic” for those who do not follow the daily drama this individual has created.
ETA: Or better yet a clearer statement that nothing about this is clear.
- paulbjensen
He who controls the Slack, controls the (Wordpress) universe.
- largbae
I only see the headlines of this drama. All it tells me is to stay far away from any dependency on this company.
- f33d5173
So he was on a leave of absense, and now is no longer on such a leave? This is only an attempted coup if you think the leave of absense was a pretense, but they give no evidence of that in the article. I saw it suggested that he usually has wild ideas after returning from burning man, and the board wanted to insulate the company from the effects of that. That he's now back is evidence for a theory along those lines, and contradicts a theory that the board was trying to get rid of him. But I have no insight beyond that.
- JumpCrisscross