# Automattic: CEO Speedrun Record Time

**URL:** <https://forum.wpbay.com/t/automattic-ceo-speedrun-record-time/331>\
**Category:** 🗣️ Off-Topic Lounge\
**Created:** [September 11, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.wpbay.com/t/automattic-ceo-speedrun-record-time/331 "2026-09-11T17:17:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CodeRevolution](https://forum.wpbay.com/user_avatar/forum.wpbay.com/coderevolution/32/7_2.png) [@CodeRevolution](https://forum.wpbay.com/u/CodeRevolution)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.wpbay.com/t/automattic-ceo-speedrun-record-time/331/1 "2026-09-11T17:17:33Z")

</div>

Well, this escalated quickly.

Wednesday: Automattic’s board puts Matt Mullenweg on paid leave and makes CFO Mark Davies interim CEO.

Friday: Matt appears back in Slack with “don’t call it a comeback”, says the board is back in agreement and he’s in control again, then links LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.”

Meanwhile, Davies’ Slack account is reportedly deactivated, nobody seems to have heard an official confirmation from the board yet, and when TechCrunch asked Matt if he was trolling, his answer was:

“I’m not a troll I’m a pirate, obviously.”

And the best part: Matt told TechCrunch a blog post explaining things was coming.

The blog post was about him buying a houseboat.

At this point Automattic doesn’t need a board meeting. It needs a changelog.

Still developing, so we’ll see if this is a CEO comeback, a board rollback, or simply Friday in WordPress land.

> <https://x.com/photomatt/status/2098331987161592207>

> **[Matt Mullenweg tells (trolls?) Automattic staff, saying he's back in control...](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/)**
>
> In a Slack message seen by TechCrunch, Matt Mullenweg told Automattic employees he’s back in control of the company, days after its board put him on leave. Automattic has not yet confirmed the apparent reversal.