In the week since Automattic’s board placed CEO Matt Mullenweg on leave and he took back control roughly 33 hours later, the company’s employees still haven’t been told why the board acted. What they’ve learned, they’ve learned from media reports.

One Automattic employee, who spoke anonymously to The Repository, said staff hadn’t received any explanation of what happened or why the board voted to put Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence on September 9. Even former CFO Mark Davies’ departure hasn’t been formally announced, the employee said. Staff only know he’s gone because his Slack account has been deactivated.

The employee said multiple people had asked for updates across Automattic’s Slack channels, but their questions had gone unanswered. The messages were carefully worded, the employee said, out of fear of repercussions. Some frustration had spilled onto Anonymattic, an internal P2 where staff could post anonymously, but the employee said that space had since been closed.

“When chatting to people directly about [the situation], everyone I’ve spoken to has said the same thing — that they’re really angry, feel disrespected, and are incredibly disappointed with the way he is acting,” the employee said.

They said staff were told to wait for a communication from Mullenweg, but what came was his blog post about buying a houseboat.

According to the employee, when Mullenweg did post in Automattic’s announcements Slack channel on Tuesday, he only repeated what was already publicly known — that several board members had voted to put him on leave without warning, that the decision had been reversed, and that the company had retained new legal counsel for the WP Engine litigation. Nothing about why the board had acted, or what it meant for the company going forward.

“We’re all being kept in the dark and it’s very frustrating,” the employee said.

The Repository asked Mullenweg earlier this week whether he’d like to comment publicly on last week’s events, including reports that Davies was no longer CFO and that there was a new board. When he responded two days later on September 16, he wrote: “we’ve made some statements,” and asked if there was anything in particular The Repository would like to know more about. He didn’t respond to a follow-up question asking what prompted the board’s decision to place him on leave.

Meanwhile, leaked documents reported by TechCrunch on September 16 showed that Davies and former Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan had signed reciprocal severance agreements during the 33-hour window between Mullenweg being placed on leave and his return. Each executive signed off on the other’s deal, effective September 10.

The combined package comes to $8.15 million and includes 12 months of base salary paid as a lump sum, accelerated equity vesting, the ability to exercise vested stock options, and a year of health coverage, according to the severance documents. Both executives were fired when Mullenweg returned. Davies held no Automattic stock at the time of his departure, having sold his shares in the months prior, though he still held a large number of outstanding vested options, TechCrunch reported.

The golden parachute deals were another development Automattic’s employees learned about from the media rather than their own company, the employee said.

Automattic’s Board of Directors page also briefly changed on Tuesday. It was updated to list Mullenweg as the sole director, removing the bios of Sue Decker, Gen. Ann Dunwoody, and Toni Schneider — the three board members who voted to force Mullenweg on leave.

When The Repository asked about the change, an Automattic spokesperson said it had been made by “an overzealous Automattic employee” and had since been reversed. The spokesperson added: “We do not have an update on the board.” The page currently lists all four directors, including the three who have left the company.

Separately, Automattic announced on September 15 that it had retained Stephen Shackelford and Shawn J. Rabin of Susman Godfrey for company’s ongoing legal battle with WP Engine. Mullenweg reposted the announcement, writing that it was “a huge honor to work with these two.”

Susman Godfrey is a litigation firm founded in 1980 with more than 150 trial lawyers. Shackelford, who clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, is best known as co-lead counsel for Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against Fox News, which settled for $787.5 million. Rabin, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, was named Plaintiff Attorney of the Year at the 2026 National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers Awards.

Automattic and Mullenweg have been represented in the WP Engine litigation by Gibson Dunn, and before that Hogan Lovells. TechCrunch reported that Gibson Dunn had been replaced, but the court docket tells a confusing story. On September 14, multiple Gibson Dunn attorneys filed notices of withdrawal from the case. Every one of those filings was modified the same day and marked “Filed in Error. Disregard.” Susman Godfrey attorneys have since appeared on the docket.

Disclosure: Automattic-owned Pressable are sponsors of The Repository.

Image credit: Gianni Vascellari.