Automattic begins staggered layoffs after failed board coup against CEO
What's the deal? Automattic — parent of WordPress.com, WooCommerceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Tumblr — has begun laying off staff across multiple teams, with insiders bracing for more cuts. Over at least the past week, the reductions have hit its communications team, social team, WordPress.com, and its VIP enterprise business, with further cuts reported in marketing and product.
Why now? The layoffs follow a dramatic governance crisis. In September, Automattic's board voted to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on leave; 33 hours later he was back in control, and the three directors who moved against him were gone, along with the company's chief financial officer and chief legal officer.
What led here? The turmoil traces to Mullenweg's legal fight with WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company that sued Automattic and Mullenweg in October 2024 over alleged extortion and later added antitrust claims a judge revived in September. That dispute has driven out 159 staffers so far, according to FortuneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → .
More departures: Communications director Megan Fox said on LinkedIn that her role had been "eliminated," calling it an "unexpected end." Interim CFO Jeremy Klaperman also left this month; Mullenweg suggested on X that Klaperman may have been "offended" by the decision to seek external candidates for the role.
Internal tensions: In the company's internal Slack, Mullenweg shared private details about a health matter affecting a departed executive's spouse, claiming the company was withholding COBRA insurance and that the person was threatening to sue, according to screenshots viewed by TechCrunchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Some employees said they were shocked a CEO would share such personal information.
What's the endgame? Automattic's About page lists 1,397 staff. Insiders say the plan is to spread cuts over coming months to improve fourth-quarter revenue ahead of a debt renegotiation due in June, though the company has not confirmed that rationale.
Mullenweg said the terminations were not above the company's "normal numbers." A spokesperson said Automattic is "staggering our organizational changes to be more generous with severance and allow more time with each Automattician."
The signal: This is more than routine tech-sector belt-tightening. The combination of executive churn, an unresolved legal battle, and looming debt talks makes the scale of Automattic's restructuring — and its stability — genuinely uncertain.
Read more: TechCrunch
Image credit: Titanas
