Web Summit’s Paddy Cosgrave settles multi-million euro legal battle

Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave has settled a multi-million euro legal battle with two of the event’s shareholders, following a years-long dispute between the trio.

Cosgrave originally sought more than €10m in damages from former school friend David Kelly, who held a 12% stake in the business, for alleged breaches of directors’ duties. 

Kelly and former Web Summit director Daire Hickey, who also held a 7% shareholding, were suing Cosgrave for alleged shareholder oppression and breach of a profit share agreement. 

Terms of the settlement were not made public.

Cosgrave founded Web Summit in 2009, nurturing it into one of the world’s biggest tech conferences, attracting around 70k participants each year.

But a row exploded around a decade later, when Cosgrave sued Kelly and Hickey over a venture fund the Web Summit boss alleged was developed in secret to profit from the company’s success. Cosgrave was accused of “bullying behaviour” in turn.

The case, which had been expected to last three months, involved five separate legal actions in total. Cosgrave’s lawyers described the disputes as having “bitterness running through them like a spine”, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported.

All claims in the case have now been dropped.

“We are delighted to have finally removed these two individuals as minority shareholders,” said Cosgrave in a LinkedIn post. 

“It’s heartening that David Kelly and Daire Hickey have recognised publicly what we have known for years: that them leaving the company as shareholders is in Web Summit’s best interests.”

Cosgrave added that the settlement involved Kelly and Hickey acknowledging that he was the sole founder of WebSummit.

Hickey and Kelly both stated they were “pleased” with the outcome, according to reports. 

Cosgrave has courted controversy over the years. He was forced to resign in late 2023 after sponsors including Meta, Google, Stripe and Intel pulled out of Web Summit following posts referring to Israel’s response in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on October 7, before being reinstated six months later.