Link: https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?Fedizen.EU

> Mullenweg is the founder of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress, Tumblr, Pocket Casts, and a host of other popular internet brands and pieces of software. Mullenweg has faced several controversies over his management of the company in recent years.

> On a company-wide Slack this morning, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced he has been put on a paid leave of absence. [...] He continued, writing that Mark Davies, current Automattic Chief Financial Officer, has “conspired” with Automattic Board of Directors members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker “behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.”

Thank the Gods it's paid leave, otherwise he would have had to start whittling away at his hundreds of millions of dollars.

This dude is exhibit A of money ruining everything it touches

I hope he dies in a gutter.

lol the fact that he chose to bitch about it in the company Slack openly proves that the board was right to push him out, like what did he expect, that the remaining employees that haven’t been laid off yet will rally to support him, This guy has lost his marbles, the ones who took the $30,000 severance to quit must be very happy right now

No, that was JK Rowling.

🚗💥🔨

She was awful before the money, money just made her able to do it more

not like he wasn’t just a fall guy for the board

don’t feel sorry for him but he’s just the face

I wonder what he'll build next, now that he has time for his own projects again. Obviously that's how to prove that Automattic wasn't just a fluke.

Money doesn't corrupt, it just exposes.

I bet a lot of people wish they could be put on paid leave.

He's absolutely the main antagonist, not a "fall guy" or "the face."

main guys can’t be put on leave

Motherfucker you know the extra T in AutoMATTic is him, right?

It's possible to be the owner and founder of a company and, over the course of time, sell enough of your share of a company to be beholden to a board of minority owners/investors, right?

all of my what

so you mean he sold control…

as in he's now beholden to a board…

who controls him

Yeah I'm sure the board told him to publicly disparage WP Engine and then get in a multiyear dick-wagging contest with anyone who disagrees with him.

It also corrupts, but by association with other rich assholes. But to get to that level, you need to have no morals.

Also money separates you from reality. These tech ceos often have entire wings of the headquarters to themselves, hidden behind private security. With only yes men left to talk to.

It does sometimes lead to good outcomes, like when Steve Jobs thought that a fucking insane diet would cure his (at the time) fairly treatable cancer.

He needs to be ousted from the company full stop.

I used to work at an international, where the CEO left to create a new startup.

The amount of people that worked in his office, that made glazing email all (yep all 2500 global workers) was astounding. In short, that guy was seen mostly as a joke in a large slew of the offices. Because he was so lost from reality.

But he had a cult following, because he was some kind of a name within a niche

Oh look, a touch of karma to start the day.

For the last few years, Mullenweg has waged a divisive legal battle with WP Engine, sparing publicly with opponents and peers on social media and in his personal blog. In 2024, he made an “Alignment Offer,” giving Automattic employees who disagreed with his stances the option to take six months of pay or $30,000, whichever was higher, with the stipulation that they would lose access to their work logins that same evening and would not be eligible for rehire.

One hundred and fifty-nine people took the offer and left. He then made another buyout offer, and threatened employees who spoke to the press with termination, saying, “exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.”

Most recently, Automattic attempted to claim it owns the word “automatic.” 

oh that’s his ego thinking he could still do whatever he wanted, you know like he had actual control

this isn’t the only unpopular thing with this dude recently, i imagine it was convenient for the board to scape goat him and put him in his place at the same time

if this really was all just him they would have pulled his ass months ago

my point is company culture is still shit, theatrics of his aside company will still be trash

“We have asked Mark Davies to assume the interim CEO role while Matt is out.

Hopefully this new guy isn't an AI bro that will ruin WordPress

What about my comment makes you think I feel sorry for him lol

Imagine a kingdom. The king is the main guy and indisputably the most powerful. But the king has vassals who are each powerful in their own right. If all the vassals agree that the king is an insufferable bumblefuck doing them all more harm than good, this is a real problem for the king. The king can, in that situation, probably get away with a lot of shit for a long time while the vassals gather strength to oppose him. Each vassal acting individually would be an easy target for the king. It may take concerted action from almost all of the vassals to be able to successfully mount an opposition at all, even if only a partial one. Just because the king eventually fucks around hard enough to find out doesn’t mean he’s not the most powerful guy in the room until that time.

Note that it took a majority of the board to give this guy a paid vacation. He’s definitely the main guy.

I don't actively develop websites in WordPress anymore but I do have several legacy WordPress sites still running, and I gotta say, WordPress has really lost the plot. The updated post editor is just awful, the php side of things is as much of a mess as it ever was, and it seems to be like mullenweg didn't really know what to do with wordpress.com or Tumblr for that matter.

and that’s why a ‘king’ is rarely an absolute ruler

i mean fuck it’s all in our histories and popular media

who was the power in game of thrones? how often was it the king?

main guys don’t sell a controlling share

guess who can owns 50.1% of Valve Corp?

that was me saying i dont feel sorry for him