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.
Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, each signed the other’s severance agreement, effective September 10.
(The company replaced its earlier counsel, Gibson Dunn, with Stephen Shackelford and Shawn J. Rabin of Susman Godfrey LLP, the company and Mullenweg jointly announced on Wednesday.
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Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, each signed the other’s severance agreement, effective September 10. Between the two of them, the full package comes out to $8.15 million that Automattic would now owe both executives.
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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.
In the 33-hour window between Mullenweg being put on leave and his return, two executives at the company signed off on exit packages for each other. Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, each signed the other’s severance agreement, effective September 10.
Between the two of them, the full package comes out to $8.15 million that Automattic would now owe both executives, since Mullenweg fired them upon his return.
(The company replaced its earlier counsel, Gibson Dunn, with Stephen Shackelford and Shawn J. Rabin of Susman Godfrey LLP, the company and Mullenweg jointly announced on Wednesday.
In Davies’ case, the agreement also specifies that his removal from the interim CEO role won’t count as “Good Reason” — a legal term that normally lets an executive resign and still collect severance, on the grounds that their job conditions changed for the worse — as long as he remains CFO. While that clause itself is not strange for a legal agreement, it suggests the document was drafted with Davies’ precise circumstances in mind —becoming interim CEO — effectively ensuring Automattic won’t owe him severance once his temporary CEO stint ends, as he can’t claim that alone as a reason to resign.
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