Automattic has a new board after failed attempt to put CEO on leave

How did the board plan pull this off if Mullenweg has 84% of the voting shares? For that matter, what is even the purpose of a board in a multi-class share structure with the founder holding above 50% voting shares.

Fireship pointed out that the board members gave themselves a generous severance package in the very brief interim, so that was very possibly the whole plan.

I'm surprised anyone still uses wordpress after this whole sh!tshow, but outside HN folks probably don't even know. Just reading about it about it puts me off from the product and company.

These will be words I will probably have to eat in the future (or when I research that guy's other opinions), but just based on the BS that was thrown at the guy in HN comments, this guy deserves respect for the power move of not giving a shit about these kinds of politics.

Truly an impressive play.

It says he has 84% of the voting shares. Is there any possible way that the board could have been successful? Regardless of Mullenberg, (and I know he's controversial) a coup that is pre-ordained to fail seems like value destroying negligence.

If you come at the king, you better not miss (c) Omar Little

1. Wow his profile picture is so extremely fluorescent

2. I guess I should move my blog off Wordpress

Again, the one thing I love the most about Python is the lack of drama. I don’t want to be forced to practice Drama-driven Development.

Looks like the Altman Maneuver...

How does a CEO pull off resisting an ouster and firing the board?

Come at the king you best not miss...

The astroturfing from the old board in this thread is unreal. Can we clean it up?

Wordpress does not seem long for this world. How much of the Wordpress ecosystem is pure wasted resources, trying to be accommodating for all possibilities? As people see how easy Claude or Codex makes it to get off flat price Wordpress hosting and on to usage based platforms like Vercel, Wordpress usage will fade out. Feels like bloatware has no place in they coming world of AI customized software builds.

Where is the Wordpress.org board to force him out? It seems he’s harming the project and the foundation much more than his company.

I get the frustration, that it’d be nice of commercial entities that use our software to do more to support its development and maintenance, but that’s not in the license. A good project will create a healthy ecosystem with sufficient voluntary influx of resources. If it doesn’t, then maybe it’s no longer healthy or viable.

There will be a time things like Python, FreeBSD, Linux, MySQL, and so many others we know and love, will have been surpassed by new successors better adapted to that time. We’ll cherish their memory, remind everyone of their role in taking us to that future, and move on.