Matt Mullenweg says he is back in control of Automattic

Matt Mullenweg told Automattic employees on Slack that he is back in control of the WordPress.com parent company, according to a screenshot seen by TechCrunch and confirmed by two sources.

The message came days after Automattic’s board voted to remove Mullenweg as CEO for unknown reasons. The company’s chief financial officer, Mark Davies, was made interim CEO, and Automattic previously confirmed that Mullenweg was on paid leave.

In a new Slack message shared early Friday, Mullenweg said the board was “back in agreement” and that he was in control of Automattic. He added that a lot had happened in the past 48 hours and that he hoped much of it was a misunderstanding. He also shared a link to the YouTube video for LL Cool J’s “Make Said Knock You Out.”

Automattic has not confirmed the apparent reversal, and no one at the company had heard confirmation from the board, according to TechCrunch. Sources also said Davies’ Slack account was deactivated.

The situation remains unclear. Mullenweg had previously said that board members had acted behind his back and suggested on Reddit and X that outside interests, including Silver Lake, were involved in a plan against him. Mullenweg said a blog post was forthcoming.