Matt Mullenweg Reassures Automattic Team of His Leadership After CEO Departure: A Message to the Trolls?

Matt Mullenweg has announced his return as CEO of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, via a message on the company’s Slack channel. This comes just days after the board voted to temporarily remove him, although the reasons for this decision remain unclear.

Automattic has yet to confirm Mullenweg’s statement, despite multiple requests for clarification. In response to inquiries, Mullenweg indicated that a blog post detailing his situation is on the way, although his last post was about a recent houseboat purchase.

On Friday afternoon, Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress.org, expressed her relief and happiness regarding Mullenweg’s return as CEO in a post on social media.

This is a developing story.

Earlier this week, Mullenweg informed his team that board members had conspired to place him on a paid leave, resulting in the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Mark Davies as the interim CEO. This development was later confirmed by an Automattic spokesperson.

On Friday morning, Mullenweg shared a new message on Slack:

“(Don’t call it a comeback…) Howdy everybody! Happy to announce the board is back in agreement, and I’m in control of Automattic. A lot happened in the past 48 hours that we need to sort out, and I hope much of it was a misunderstanding, because I have huge respect and regard for those involved.”

He also included a link to a well-known music video for LL Cool J.

As of now, Automattic has not provided any confirmation regarding these claims. Additionally, reports indicate that Mark Davies’ Slack account has been deactivated.

However, sources revealed that Mullenweg has taken steps to remove all Slack administrators from the platform and made a peculiar post about being a “pirate,” which was out of character for him.

Given the uncertainties, it remains difficult to discern whether Mullenweg is joking or if genuine changes have occurred.

When questioned about his behavior on Slack, Mullenweg replied, “I’m not a troll I’m a pirate, obviously.”

After his unexpected removal as CEO, Mullenweg’s online activity indicated he was preparing for a fight. On various platforms, he challenged speculation regarding the implications for the open-source community, asserting that others were misunderstanding the situation.

He also stated that things were not as they seemed and requested assistance from system administrators and security experts for personal projects, despite expressing support for Davies’ leadership.

He implied that Silver Lake, the private equity firm that owns a majority stake in a competitor, has been working against him as part of a scheme to disrupt his life.

Mullenweg concluded Friday by tweeting, “Boards are never boring,” followed by a laughing/crying emoji.