Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has been abruptly put on a paid leave of absence from the company by its board of directors, despite his objections. But enterprise IT executives who rely on WordPress may find the shift doesn’t mean much as long as Mullenweg fully controls WordPress.org, which handles all of the product’s patches and updates.
“The part of WordPress that actually keeps enterprise IT up at night isn’t Automattic’s org chart. It’s WordPress.org, the plugin and theme directory every WordPress site pulls its security updates from, and the WordPress trademark,” said Frank Dickson, principal analyst at Dickson Research. “Mullenweg owns and controls both personally, outside of Automattic, and nothing about this week’s vote touches that. He also remains a director on Automattic’s board. The company changed who runs its hosting business without changing who controls the distribution pipeline millions of those hosted sites still depend on.”
For IT leaders who rely on WordPress, it’s important to differentiate what is currently known about the change and what is speculation. A statement emailed to Computerworld from Automattic merely said: “Matt Mullenweg is currently on leave from Automattic. Mark Davies, Automattic’s CFO, will lead the company as interim CEO. The Board has full confidence in Mark’s leadership and in the team’s ability to execute against the company’s priorities.”
