Automattic’s board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

Last year, Mullenweg also threatened to deactivate the accounts of several members of the open-source WordPress.org community, after two of them said they planned to spearhead a new forked version of the open source WordPress project.

In April 2025, the company laid off 16% of its staff. The cuts included some longtime employees who had been with the company for more than a decade, sources told TechCrunch.

Some alumni have been asking current employees how they feel about the news, a source told TechCrunch. Some employees said they were “ecstatic” or “relieved” but others had mixed emotions because the move creates more instability.

It isn’t clear why the company’s board made this decision now. One person speculated that the timing may have something to do with Mullenweg’s annual trip to the Burning Man festival, after which he tends to return “with ideas.” This year’s festival ended on September 7.

Mullenweg did not immediately respond to our request for comment.