Topic
The commercial and open-source market of plugins, themes, hosting and migration tooling built around the WordPress content management system.
Automattic put Matt Mullenweg on paid leave on Wednesday and made its CFO interim CEO. Two days later Mullenweg told staff on Slack that the board is back in agreement, and no board member has confirmed it.
Reality
Matt Mullenweg's 84% vote returned him to control of Automattic 33 hours after its board put him on leave. For businesses on WordPress.com, WooCommerce or Tumblr, that vote is the governance they are buying into, whoever he names to the board.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
The reciprocal deals, effective September 10, would cost Automattic $8.15 million now that Matt Mullenweg has fired both men. The company's new lawyers are deciding whether to pay out or contest the documents.
Reality
Matt Mullenweg went on leave last Thursday and was back by Saturday, with CFO Mark Davies standing in between the two notices. The company timed the absence to the minute and has declined to explain what changed.
Reality
Automattic's board put Matt Mullenweg on leave on 9 September and he was back inside 33 hours; the two mutual severance agreements that took effect in that window carry an estimated $8.15M and a for-cause escape route.
Reality
A board resolution made Automattic's CFO interim chief executive on Wednesday. A spokesperson's sentence to TechCrunch on Saturday put Matt Mullenweg back in the title, and Automattic has not described what authority Mark Davies retains.
Reality
The WordPress.org update API will refuse any plugin release its own scoring calls high risk. The decision moves off a team member's inbox and onto a threshold the announcement does not publish.
Reality
Directors named the finance chief interim CEO on September 9 and left the open-source project's distribution servers under Mullenweg's personal control, while the WP Engine suit still names him alongside the company.
Reality
Kendall's tau between backup time and archive size is -0.50, which leaves six of the nine plugins Pareto-optimal and makes the single number at the top of the board a weighting its author would be choosing for you.
Reality