Automattic’s interim CEO and legal chief signed reciprocal severance deals during Mullenweg’s brief ouster

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  "signal_type": "news",
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  "detected_at": "2026-09-16T19:35:29+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Automattic",
    "domain": "automattic.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/16/automattics-interim-ceo-and-legal-chief-signed-reciprocal-severance-deals-during-mullenwegs-brief-ouster/",
    "title": "Automattic’s interim CEO and legal chief signed reciprocal severance deals during Mullenweg’s brief ouster",
    "author": "Sarah Perez",
    "contact": "Mark Davies",
    "excerpt": "Last week, on September 9, Automattic’s board voted to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave, a decision the board still hasn’t explained publicly. Mullenweg, in a company-wide Slack message, accused CFO Mark Davies of “conspiring” with three board members behind his back to force the vote through, saying he was given only 50 minutes’ notice and was denied time to have the resolution reviewed by outside legal counsel. He returned to the role roughly 33 hours later, and the same board members who voted him out have since departed the company. They didn’t just walk out the door, though. In the 33-hour window between Mullenweg being put on leave and his return, two key executives at the company signed off on generous exit packages for each other. Davies, who became interim CEO during that window, and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, each signed the other’s severance agreement, effective September 10. These agreements, effectively golden parachutes, provide each of them with 12 months of base salary paid out as a lump sum, an accelerated vesting schedule for their equity, the ability to exercise their vested stock options, and another year of health coverage, according to the severance documents reviewed by TechCrunch. Between the two of them, the full package - accelerated equity plus a year of salary - comes out to $8.15 million that Automattic would now owe both executives...",
    "summary": "Automattic's CFO, Mark Davies, has been fired from the company after being accused of conspiring to oust CEO Matt Mullenweg.",
    "planning": false,
    "image_url": "https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Matt-Mullenweg.jpg?resize=1200,799",
    "job_title": "CFO",
    "confidence": 0.9,
    "published_at": "2026-09-16T19:35:29Z",
    "job_title_tags": [
      "directors",
      "finance"
    ],
    "article_sentence": "Between the two of them, the full package - accelerated equity plus a year of salary - comes out to $8.15 million that Automattic would now owe both executives, since Mullenweg fired them upon his return."
  }
}

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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}'