Automattic Board's Failed Move to Sideline Matt Mullenweg Exposes Deep Rift Over WP Engine Fight
A six-member Automattic board voted to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave, but he regained control within 33 hours, and three directors plus the CFO and chief legal officer departed. The episode reflects a long-running internal conflict over Mullenweg's legal battle with WP Engine.
A bid by Automattic's board to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave collapsed within 33 hours, leaving the WordPress founder in control and three directors out, along with the company's chief financial officer and chief legal officer. The episode, which unfolded in September, has exposed a long-simmering internal conflict over Mullenweg's legal fight with WP Engine, a company that sells WordPress hosting.
Mullenweg announced the board's move himself in a Slack message to employees, saying that Mark Davies had conspired with Ann Dunwoody, Toni and Sue Decker behind his back and that the group had voted to put him on a paid leave of absence. He said he voted against the decision. The board was made up largely of directors who had mentored Mullenweg for years, and the move appeared to come out of the blue just after his annual trip to Burning Man.
Within 33 hours, Mullenweg was back in charge. The three directors who sought to sideline him were gone, as were the CFO and the chief legal officer. In a message to staff, he wrote, «(Don't call it a comeback...) Howdy everybody!» and linked to LL Cool J's «Mama Said Knock You Out.»
None of the board members have publicly explained why they suddenly wanted him out, and Mullenweg has declined to describe why he was effectively fired or how he quickly regained control. Even some investors were left guessing. A person familiar with BlackRock's investment said they learned of the board's move from news reports and still do not understand how Mullenweg reversed it. «I don't understand how he basically reinstated himself and reversed the decision of the vote,» the person said. «That makes no sense to us.»
The turmoil traces back to Mullenweg's pursuit of WP Engine, which is majority-owned by private equity firm Silver Lake. In 2024, he argued that WP Engine was not holding up its end of the open-source bargain. He said the two companies were roughly the same size, yet Automattic donated about 3,900 hours a week to improving WordPress while WP Engine gave roughly 40. He accused WP Engine of disabling a WordPress feature that saves past versions of posts as a cost-cutting measure and said Silver Lake «doesn't give a dang about your open source ideals.» He called WP Engine a «cancer» on WordPress and demanded a cut of its revenue.
WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg in October 2024, accusing them of attempted extortion, and later added antitrust claims that a federal judge revived on Sept. 24. If WP Engine wins those claims, federal antitrust law could let it collect three times its damages. Automattic countersued a year after the original suit, accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement. WP Engine has asked the judge to throw out those claims as punishment for what it called Mullenweg's bad-faith conduct during the suit, including the implausible loss of electronic devices containing messages it was seeking in discovery.
At a hearing on Oct. 7, the judge overseeing the dispute said he was leaning toward denying that request, according to the WordPress industry publication The Repository. But he also said Automattic's former lawyers had exaggerated what they had done to preserve Mullenweg's messages. Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor and former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said destruction or withholding of evidence in civil litigation is «very serious» and that companies get in big trouble for it. If a judge finds a company failed to preserve evidence, he said, «the judge can assume the worst.»
The conflict has already driven 159 staffers out of Automattic. WordPress, created by Mullenweg and Mike Little in 2003 as a free, open-source project, powers more than 40% of the web. Mullenweg founded Automattic two years later, deliberately misspelling the brand name so that it included his own first name. The company went on to acquire Tumblr in 2019 for just $3 million and raised $288 million in 2021 at a valuation of about $7.5 billion. All told, it has raised close to $1 billion from investors.
Neither Mullenweg nor his board responded to multiple requests for comment. The civil war inside Automattic remains unresolved, with the legal battle now a liability for a company whose software underpins a vast share of the internet.
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