A bitter legal dispute between the three principal Web Summit shareholders is heading back to the High Court next week after efforts to settle the matter through mediation broke down in Dublin.
Five related cases involving the tech conference company’s chief executive, Paddy Cosgrave, and two shareholders and former directors, Daire Hickey and David Kelly, are now expected to proceed to a civil trial on Tuesday, March 18th.
The cases – taken by Mr Cosgrave against Mr Kelly initially in 2021 and variously by Mr Kelly and Mr Hickey against Mr Cosgrave – will be heard together and are expected to take nine weeks, the court heard last month.
Mr Cosgrave and his two former business partners agreed “in principle” in February to enter mediation. After some dispute, the three parties agreed to the appointment of Sue Prevezer KC, a London-based barrister, to facilitate the talks last week.
However, The Irish Times understands the mediation process broke down on Tuesday.
In response to questions, Ms Prevezer said she was “unable to comment” on the matter.
A spokesman for Mr Cosgrave and Web Summit said the company could not comment on a confidential mediation process.
Mr Cosgrave said in a post on X on Wednesday afternoon: “For the first time in my life I bought a proper suit this morning. In fact, I bought five impeccable suits. Along with 15 ties, and four pairs of leather shoes. It’s almost show time.”
Mr Hickey and Mr Kelly have been approached for comment.
The breakdown in relations between the three men came to light in late 2021 when Mr Cosgrave, the majority shareholder in the business, sued Mr Kelly, who owns 12 per cent of Manders Terrace, the holding company behind Web Summit, in the High Court seeking damages in the order of $10 million.
He alleged that Mr Kelly, a former school friend with whom he shared a house around the time the business was founded in 2009, had caused a loss to the company by, among other things, founding a competing venture capital fund using Web Summit resources.
Mr Kelly, who strongly denies the allegations, then sued Mr Cosgrave, claiming his rights as a minority shareholder in the company had been oppressed. He said his relationship with Mr Cosgrave had become “irredemably toxic” leading up to his resignation as an employee of Web Summit in early 2021 and that his former friend had “run the company in a manner akin to a personal fiefdom”.
Mr Hickey, who owns 7 per cent of Web Summit, then brought a similar shareholder oppression action against Mr Cosgrave in November 2021. Both men sued Mr Cosgrave again in 2024, arguing that Web Summit and their shareholdings had been damaged by Cosgrave’s tweets about Hamas and Israel, his subsequent resignation from the company and later return.
Mr Hickey and Mr Kelly want Mr Cosgrave, who strongly denies their claims, to acquire their stake in the business.
Judge Michael Twomey, who was managing the cases ahead of the beginning of the trial, said last month that he was anxious for the disputes to go to mediation, emphasising the advantages of the process.
However, it emerged at the time that the parties could not for a time settle on a mediator to manage the process. Appearing for Mr Hickey, Brian Conroy SC told the court that Mr Cosgrave’s side was adopting the “bizarre” position that no one based in Ireland was suitable to mediate the dispute.
