Matt Mullenweg has returned to his position as CEO of Automattic just two days after being placed on a paid leave of absence. The executive announced his reinstatement in a Slack message, stating that the board is back in agreement and he is in control of the company. He noted that the events of the past 48 hours require further review.
The conflict began when Mullenweg informed staff that CFO Mark Davies had allegedly conspired with the board to remove him from his role. The board had initially voted to appoint Davies as interim CEO. Following his return, Mullenweg reported that he removed all administrators from the company Slack, while the account belonging to Davies has been deactivated.
Automattic, which owns platforms including Wordpress.com, Tumblr, and Beeper, did not provide an immediate comment on the situation. Mullenweg later addressed the incident on X, describing the event as a coup attempt and mentioning that it was the fifth such occurrence during his tenure at the company.
