A Fifty-Minute Coup: Inside the Sudden Ouster of Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg
In a stunning corporate shake-up that has sent shockwaves through the web development community, Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress and the longtime CEO of Automattic, has been abruptly removed from his leadership role and placed on paid leave. The company’s board of directors voted to replace Mullenweg with Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies, executing a swift transition that reportedly caught the co-founder entirely off guard.
According to internal communications, Mullenweg was given a mere 50 minutes of advance notice before the board convened to vote on his removal. His frantic requests to delay the vote—even by a few hours—to allow independent legal counsel to review the resolution were flatly denied by the board.
In a message broadcasted to colleagues via an internal Slack announcement, a blindsided Mullenweg pointed fingers directly at his successor. ‘And the biggest news: I won’t be able to make the ELT tomorrow… I received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting start, and requested repeatedly for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel, even a few hours, which was denied…,’ Mullenweg wrote, accusing the CFO of conspiring behind his back with the board of directors to orchestrate the coup.
The Fallout of a ‘Nuclear’ War
Mullenweg’s sudden ouster comes on the heels of mounting industry backlash over his highly aggressive, self-described ‘nuclear’ campaign against WP Engine, a major hosting provider. That conflict has dragged Automattic into a high-stakes legal battle, culminating in a lawsuit from WP Engine and a highly damaging motion for sanctions against Automattic.
The legal proceedings have already yielded embarrassing revelations. The motion for sanctions accuses Mullenweg of destroying or failing to preserve crucial evidence. Jonathan Robins, Automattic’s own e-discovery vendor, reportedly claimed that both Mullenweg’s laptop and a mobile phone were entirely unaccounted for, fueling further skepticism about the CEO’s conduct behind the scenes.
Yet the consequences of Mullenweg’s aggressive tactics extend far beyond the courtroom. The open-source WordPress ecosystem, which powers a massive portion of the modern web, has begun to show signs of severe strain. Industry data points to a declining market share for the WordPress content management system (CMS), alongside steadily dwindling attendance at WordCamp, the community’s flagship conference series.
This corporate crisis arrives at an already precarious moment for the platform. The WordPress plugin ecosystem has been locked in a painful, slow-motion decline. Independent developers are grappling with shrinking paid user bases and a sharp rise in security vulnerabilities—both trends heavily accelerated by the rise of artificial intelligence.
A Nonchalant Response
Despite the severity of his removal, Mullenweg attempted to project an air of detached amusement publicly. On September 10, 2026, as news of his ouster began to circulate, he posted a brief, tongue-in-cheek message to his social media followers: ‘I’ve been in meetings all day, what’d I miss? Is there a new iPhone?’
While Mullenweg attempts to laugh off the coup, the reality for Automattic is far more sober. With Mark Davies now at the helm, the company faces the monumental task of stabilizing a fractured community, navigating a treacherous legal minefield, and reversing the decline of one of the internet’s most foundational technologies.