--- title: Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence' description: Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has been placed on paid leave of absence after a board vote he says he opposed. CFO Mark Davies becomes interim CEO. Mullenweg... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/oakngaqg3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence' | daily.dev og:description: Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has been placed on paid leave of absence after a board vote he says he opposed. CFO Mark Davies becomes interim CEO. Mullenweg... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/oakngaqg3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OAkNgaqG3.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence' **[PHP Dev](https://daily.dev/sources/phpdev)** · [@damienseguy](https://daily.dev/damienseguy) · 9 upvotes · 11 comments ## Summary Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has been placed on paid leave of absence after a board vote he says he opposed. CFO Mark Davies becomes interim CEO. Mullenweg claims CFO Mark Davies conspired with board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker behind his back, and that he was denied time to have the resolution reviewed by independent legal counsel. Board member Toni Schneider and Davies both say the transition will be smooth and Mullenweg retains a board seat. The move follows years of controversy including Mullenweg's legal battle with WP Engine and buyout offers to employees who disagreed with his stances. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@coppnic** · 4 upvotes > > He wrote that nothing will change as a result of Mullenweg’s leave. > > Either blatant lie, or admitting that this is a PR move. > > > "but we'll move forward with transparency, communication, and teamwork." > > Sounds like "I swear, this was the only time we have conspired in secret, behind everyones backs, from now on, we will be super nice, promised." > > To be honest, most people don't see what is happening right infront of our eyes. The weakening of Matt is pushed noticable and mainly by Media Outlets that are (co)owned by BlackRock. > > BlackRock pushes the evaluation for... **@markojr** · 1 upvotes > Can we now get rid of Gutenberg aswell? **@doncho** · 1 upvotes > Was about time, I guess... ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#wordpress](https://daily.dev/tags/wordpress), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/oakngaqg3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/oakngaqg3","headline":"Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'","text":"Shared: Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/oakngaqg3","datePublished":"2026-09-10T08:22:26.434Z","dateModified":"2026-09-10T08:23:35.912Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Damien seguy","url":"https://daily.dev/damienseguy","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--nPbjKqol--/f_auto,q_auto/v1698422671/avatars/avatar_G85JhYcDxAg024Omc8Rlp","description":"PHP developer passionate about deep language knowledge, testing, static analysis, and sustainable it","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Exakat","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ibtl6fze--/f_auto/v1749051132/companies/exakat"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":35840}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/ajDeIfinT"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"He wrote that nothing will change as a result of Mullenweg’s leave.\n\nEither blatant lie, or admitting that this is a PR move.\n\n“but we’ll move forward with transparency, communication, and teamwork.”\n\nSounds like “I swear, this was the only time we have conspired in secret, behind everyones backs, from now on, we will be super nice, promised.”\nTo be honest, most people don’t see what is happening right infront of our eyes. The weakening of Matt is pushed noticable and mainly by Media Outlets that are (co)owned by BlackRock.\nBlackRock pushes the evaluation for WordPress.com since they started investing in WordPress.com. The Interim CEO (now still CFO) Mark Davies brought BlackRock into WordPress.com as Investor. At the same time BlackRock is a main financee of Silver Lake, who not only owns WP Engine but also a huge fraction of internet infrastructure. Mark Davies also worked for Dell for 12 years, who is tightly connected to Silver Lake. Davies knows how Silver Lake and how BlackRock do businesses. He knows their playbooks. He managed the BlackRock investment in WordPress.com.\nThis is a elaborate but still traditional picture book process of Corporate Raiding that will probably end in Asset Stripping.\nAnd all most people do is keep on bashing on Matt, following populistic articles published by News Outlets controlled by BlackRock.\nThey want to get rid of an idealist and steer WordPress away from open source ideals towards turbo capitalism and control over the publishing industry and news hosting.\nI hope I am wrong and you might can laugh at me for saying this. But I am kind of certain, that this is the long play. All the signs, the financial playbook approach and all these “coincidences” are to much to be just “coincidences”.","datePublished":"2026-09-10T14:54:13.668Z","dateModified":"2026-09-10T14:58:36.172Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/OAkNgaqG3#c-1ZCLvL3rs","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"coppnic","url":"https://daily.dev/coppnic","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--8VyNl1cb--/f_auto/v1732889303/avatars/avatar_z5bNZJIOpNguomDjmmrE2"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Can we now get rid of Gutenberg aswell?","datePublished":"2026-09-10T08:51:00.428Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/OAkNgaqG3#c-9yScn7oqS","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Marko Jozic-Reyes","url":"https://daily.dev/markojr","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--TvIfWcng--/f_auto/v1769558803/avatars/avatar_x9cfuU5ai02W3BPEbroGK?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Was about time, I guess…","datePublished":"2026-09-10T08:53:52.434Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/OAkNgaqG3#c-tvYX2QPSZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Doncho Angelov","url":"https://daily.dev/doncho","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--j1MSm0hy--/f_auto/v1716369534/avatars/avatar_EB0j0Umzh5v3zGWUSL5ma"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/phpdev","name":"PHP Dev"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PHP Dev","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/phpdev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'"}]} ```