Inside the 33-hour failed boardroom coup to overthrow WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg
Source: Fortune ·
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg presides over a company that has been at war with itself for months over an antitrust lawsuit.
From the source
On Sept. 9, the six-member board of Automattic—the company that owns WordPress, Tumblr, and other web-based apps—voted to put its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, on leave. The move seemingly came out of the blue: Mullenweg had just returned from his annual trip to Burning Man, and the board was made up largely of directors who had mentored Mullenweg for years. Mullenweg broke the news himself, in a Slack message to employees: “And the biggest news: I won’t be able to make the [meeting] tomorrow,” he wrote. “@Mark Davies has conspired with @Ann Dunwoody, @Toni, and @Sue Decker behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.” And then, 33 hours later, Mullenweg was back in control, and the three directors who tried to sideline him were gone, along with the company’s CFO and its chief legal officer. “(Don’t call it a comeback…) Howdy everybody!” he wrote to staff upon his arrival, alongside a link to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” A remarkable…