Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 314 posts

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#21

Post by solarkraft »

biglyburrito wrote: post #12
gkoberger wrote: post #8

Unfortunately, this is for the best. WordPress powers a large percentage of the internet, and I'm not sure what's going on with Matt (who I've always liked) but something turned the past few years. He's been behind unforced error after unforced error as CEO, and I hope a break helps him gain some perspective (although I don't see him being brought back). WordPress has been his life for 23 years. Doing the same thing…

" Unfortunately "??

He still contributed a lot to the world during the good times.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#22

Post by datakan »

SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #10
Shank wrote: post #2

> “And the biggest news: I won't be able to make the ELT tomorrow,” Matt wrote in an Announcement Slack. He continued, writing that Mark Davies, current Automattic Chief Financial Officer, has “conspired” with Automattic Board of Directors members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker “behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.” If you’re doing this type of accusa…

In recent memory of companies I've worked for, even the absolute WORST executives haven't gotten fired. They always announce that "it's time for another adventure" or "I am taking a break". So I am not shocked they didn't fire him, although the board is now probably wishing they did.

Had a President make a big ordeal about leaving "for health reasons". His LinkedIn had him at a new company within a couple months doing the same thing.

Had a CISO leave for "personal" reasons. Talked to him a couple years later and yeah, he was fired.

Steal 20$ out of a cash register and make the local news. Waste a billion dollars at a corp and make insane decisions and ride out on a golden parachute. Its a fucked up world.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#23

Post by solarkraft »

gkoberger wrote: post #19
biglyburrito wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Unfortunately "??

"Unfortunately", because Matt did a lot of good for the internet over the past two decades. WordCamp is (or was) really amazing, the community he built is really great, the Automattic Lounge was cool, he's donated millions of dollars to good causes, and WordPress powers a large portion of the Internet.

Automattic also bought Tumblr and Pocket Casts, publishing the code of the latter. I used to have a subscription just to support them.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#24

Post by Arnt »

biglyburrito wrote: post #12
gkoberger wrote: post #8

Unfortunately, this is for the best. WordPress powers a large percentage of the internet, and I'm not sure what's going on with Matt (who I've always liked) but something turned the past few years. He's been behind unforced error after unforced error as CEO, and I hope a break helps him gain some perspective (although I don't see him being brought back). WordPress has been his life for 23 years. Doing the same thing…

" Unfortunately "??

He read the commit logs and understood much of what he read. That's deep understanding of the product. That alone puts him in the top few percent of CEOs.

IMO.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#25

Post by Gualdrapo »

gkoberger wrote: post #19
biglyburrito wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Unfortunately "??

"Unfortunately", because Matt did a lot of good for the internet over the past two decades. WordCamp is (or was) really amazing, the community he built is really great, the Automattic Lounge was cool, he's donated millions of dollars to good causes, and WordPress powers a large portion of the Internet.

Huh. I still remember back in the Gutenberg launch era and all the drama around it (2018) the internet saying he was the devil for profiting from WP.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#26

Post by patternMachine »

SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #10
Shank wrote: post #2

> “And the biggest news: I won't be able to make the ELT tomorrow,” Matt wrote in an Announcement Slack. He continued, writing that Mark Davies, current Automattic Chief Financial Officer, has “conspired” with Automattic Board of Directors members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker “behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.” If you’re doing this type of accusa…

In recent memory of companies I've worked for, even the absolute WORST executives haven't gotten fired. They always announce that "it's time for another adventure" or "I am taking a break". So I am not shocked they didn't fire him, although the board is now probably wishing they did.

Barring truly bad behavior this is how executives get fired.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#27

Post by reticulates »

I think it is easy to underestimate how big of a deal this is. Matt has a stranglehold on Automattic and Wordpress, it is not possible to remove his control over the ecosystem and he is volatile. Ousting him as CEO is almost certain to cause a major reaction from Matt, so, for Automattic to make this decision is a very big deal. The right decision for the long term but the hard decision. I expect we will see Matt try to punish Automattic’s board, it will get worse for Automattic before it gets better.

Here is Matt talking about his control: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42657150

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#29

Post by gpm »

biglyburrito wrote: post #12
gkoberger wrote: post #8

Unfortunately, this is for the best. WordPress powers a large percentage of the internet, and I'm not sure what's going on with Matt (who I've always liked) but something turned the past few years. He's been behind unforced error after unforced error as CEO, and I hope a break helps him gain some perspective (although I don't see him being brought back). WordPress has been his life for 23 years. Doing the same thing…

" Unfortunately "??

Yeah, it's unfortunate when anyone goes off the deep end.

Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

#30

Post by dofm »

solarkraft wrote: post #23
gkoberger wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Unfortunately", because Matt did a lot of good for the internet over the past two decades. WordCamp is (or was) really amazing, the community he built is really great, the Automattic Lounge was cool, he's donated millions of dollars to good causes, and WordPress powers a large portion of the Internet.

Automattic also bought Tumblr and Pocket Casts, publishing the code of the latter. I used to have a subscription just to support them.

And Simplenote.
Post reply on HN