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

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  "signal_type": "news",
  "signal_subtype": "leaves",
  "detected_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:34+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Automattic",
    "domain": "automattic.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/25/automattic-has-a-new-board-after-failed-attempt-to-put-ceo-on-leave/",
    "title": "Automattic has a new board after failed attempt to put CEO on leave",
    "author": "Sarah Perez",
    "contact": "Sue Decker",
    "excerpt": "Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has rebuilt the company’s board just weeks after its previous directors tried, and failed, to oust him. The board, which was announced to staff Friday, is an eclectic group that includes a best-selling science fiction author and two co-founders of the now-defunct social app IRL, TechCrunch has learned. The new board is the latest twist in an internal governance fight at Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and others. Earlier this month, the previous board voted to place Mullenweg on leave in an attempt to remove him from the board, only to have the CEO retake control just 33 hours later and remove or accept the resignations of the directors who were involved. This week, Mullenweg posted about a board meeting , but didn’t share who he was meeting with. Now, he’s finally informing Automattic employees of the board changes via the company’s announcements channel in Slack. Sources told TechCrunch the new Automattic board includes: We should note that IRL shut down after investigations revealed that nearly all of its user base was made up of bots. The co-founders, who also included CEO Abraham Shafi, later sued SoftBank and other investors after SoftBank had sued for securities fraud . A slew of new advisers have also joined, including Curio Studio co-founder Jaime Waydo, June co-founder Matt Van Horn, and KISSmetrics...",
    "summary": "Sue Decker has resigned from her position on the board of Automattic.",
    "planning": false,
    "image_url": "https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/matt-mullenweg-bling-watch.jpg?resize=1200,799",
    "job_title": "Board Member",
    "confidence": 0.9,
    "published_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:34Z",
    "job_title_tags": [
      "directors"
    ],
    "article_sentence": "Mullenweg himself removed Gen. Ann Dunwoody from the board, and board member Sue Decker also resigned."
  }
}

curl https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/signals/7fc58101-4c5c-426a-301c-6681867fa01c \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY"

curl -X POST https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/companies/enrich \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain":"automattic.com","limit":20}'