Automattic's Matt Mullenweg Claims He's Back 'In Control' (404media.co) 36
Less than 48 hours after Automattic's board placed Matt Mullenweg on leave, Mullenweg told employees he was back "in control" of the company and that the board was again in agreement. 404 Media cited Slack screenshots late Thursday evening where Mullenweg posted "Don't call it a comeback" and linked to LL Cool J's music video for "Mama Said Knock You Out." "Mullenweg's Slack profile picture currently shows him wearing a pirate hat and eyepatch," the report notes. From the report: "Happy to announce the board is back in agreement, and I'm in control of Automattic," Mullenweg wrote in the company-wide Announcements channel on Slack. "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."
Mark Davies, Automattic's CFO who was set to act as interim CEO according to a statement from Automattic, had his Slack account deactivated as of at least Friday, sources told 404 Media and TechCrunch similarly reported. Davies, Mullenweg, and Automattic did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment for this story. Techcrunch reported that Mullenweg told them a blog post is forthcoming.
On Friday morning, Mullenweg published a blog post on his personal website, titled "Major Life Announcement." In it he announced he's buying a tugboat. "Anybody who's founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch," he wrote in the blog. He did not address the confusion surrounding his status at Automattic. The back-and-forth follows years of legal fights, layoffs, employee departures, and controversy surrounding Mullenweg's leadership.
Mark Davies, Automattic's CFO who was set to act as interim CEO according to a statement from Automattic, had his Slack account deactivated as of at least Friday, sources told 404 Media and TechCrunch similarly reported. Davies, Mullenweg, and Automattic did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment for this story. Techcrunch reported that Mullenweg told them a blog post is forthcoming.
On Friday morning, Mullenweg published a blog post on his personal website, titled "Major Life Announcement." In it he announced he's buying a tugboat. "Anybody who's founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch," he wrote in the blog. He did not address the confusion surrounding his status at Automattic. The back-and-forth follows years of legal fights, layoffs, employee departures, and controversy surrounding Mullenweg's leadership.
Erm, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Erm, what? (Score:5, Funny)
Does Slashdot have a history of running stories about your cat?
No but maybe they should.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
*claps*. Hahahaha, I concede that Slashdot would be a better place with more cats.
Mullenweg says he's back in control (Score:2)
As one who's seen quite a number of relevant tech news items over the past few years - I'm not sure I'd agree with that self-assessment.
In control? (Score:2)
Nope, the malware is and has been, in control for a long while
New post format: include a music video (Score:2)
The big question is who got fooled here Matt or the Board? Will they get fooled again? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Cause you are probably a millennial or were listening to Céline Dion instead.
And the Board probably got fooled again with more empty promises or an additional financial incentive.
No clue what this is about (Score:1)
Nothing important (Score:2)
What is that company they talk about here? Who are these people?
Read a post below that explains it. In short, nothing important.
Re: (Score:3)
I read the article, nothing.
Apparently we're supposed to connect the dots, Wordpress.
Re: (Score:2)
My dude, Google is RIGHT THERE. If you don't know what a company whos software powers about 2/3 of the internet is, what are you even doing on a tech website?
We really need a moderation tag for [What is this thing -1] and [How is this story about tech news for nerds -1].
It costs less key strokes to type "Automattic" into google than it is to post a useless rage-bait post on slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
Google says it is just over 40% percent, yikes. 2/5 is still very bad.
Manchilds (Score:3)
These billionaires are all immature sociopathic fuck wits. I don't see how anything short of them all being wiped out in a car crash could be considered news.
Re: (Score:3)
All of them at once? That'd take one hellacious car crash...
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Manchilds (Score:2)
This guy is almost certainly not a billionaire. At their peak, he was likely worth half a billion, but that peak was set in a private transaction in a very different economy and before all this chaos.
Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:3)
The original Automattic controversy centers on a bitter public and legal clash that erupted in September 2024 between WordPress co-creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and rival hosting company WP Engine (majority-owned by private equity firm Silver Lake). At WordCamp US, Mullenweg publicly labeled WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress,” accusing it of profiting heavily from the open-source project while contributing far less than Automattic (he cited roughly 40 hours per week versus thousands from his company) and of confusing customers by using the “WP” branding. He demanded that WP Engine either pay substantial trademark royalties (reportedly around 8% of revenue) or make larger contributions, and he cut off the company’s access to key WordPress.org resources, plugins, and updates—disrupting service for many of its customers.
WP Engine responded with a lawsuit accusing Mullenweg and Automattic of extortion, defamation, abuse of power, and anti-competitive behavior, claiming he had threatened a “scorched earth nuclear approach” after failed private negotiations. The fight triggered employee buyouts (159 staff left), community backlash, a court-ordered restoration of access, ongoing litigation, and broader questions about governance, trademark control, and the sustainability of the WordPress ecosystem.
Re: Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:3)
Re: Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:2)
First, very few people care if they run on lambda.
Second, AWS has a $3/month tier for a dedicated instance. If you can't afford $3/month for your site, it probably isn't worth putting on the web.
Re: Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:2)
Re: Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:2)
There's this thing called a reverse caching proxy that websites used to use back in the day to run efficiently on old hardware. This tech still exists and works wonders on such sites.
If you need to run temporary maintenance, you can pretty easily beef up the instance for a few minutes then go back into serving mode. Or throw up a new instance in front of the same backend DB and use that.
Re: Mullenweg unbenches himself :o (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
and of confusing customers by using the “WP” branding
I"ll just note here that people, and companies such as WP Engine, already use "WP" instead of "WordPress" for precisely this reason. And everyone in this space knows that. There isn't any confusion.
(And I don't want to hear about "confusion" from the guy who's company only exists because of the confusion between wordpress.org and wordpress.com ...)
It's well beyond time... (Score:1)
For Matt to step away, retire and stay in absolute obscurity.
Fuck this guy (Score:2)
that means (Score:5, Funny)
Other than being a clown show.... (Score:2)
What makes this more than lazy clickbait?
If this guy spontaneously dropped dead why would anyone who matters care?
Re: Other than being a clown show.... (Score:2)
WordPress would probably improve if he did
Wordpress (Score:2)
Someone needs to vibe code a python replacement for it and free the world from this guy.
(vibe code = /s )