I’d wonder what sort of berk would sit through a few days of listening to this scutter. And then network with all the other berks afterwards.
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A right berk
Has the Web Sunmit peaked ???
Nobody does. It’s business tourism.
One of the Berks of mayo
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Web Summit has officially jumped the shark.
the exact moment caught in picture:
Rent.
Free.
I know these web summit crowds are all geeks and that, but do people going to a web summit in Lisbon really give a shit about the organisers vendetta to get one over on the former leader of a country most of them couldnt give a shit about? I cant imagine Alfonso talking to Herman at the scheduled lunch about whether Leo and Maitiu are friends or not before the text messages were discovered.
Its no wonder the previous director has left and is now looking for compensation if this is the way they are now going with it as Paddys own personal playground to spend the money of the company and do whatever he wants.
Tech gemma is infringing on my copyright now.
^ €20k per academic year for school at Glenstal followed by TCD gets you this level of English?
A proper woke would never appropriate. Paddy might expect a downgrade from the fickle mob
That will have the usual suspect frothing.
I wonder did Paddy ever have a bit of pandy and a pint in Crokers when he was down in Glenstall.
Hon Paddy, fuck FFG!
Who would have thought Paddy Cosgrove was a wrongun
Typical MSM, I won’t believe this until I see it in a free paper I get in Tesco
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Paddy ain’t bothered.
Web Summit founder claims Paddy Cosgrave ‘hacked’ into rival firm’s email
new
Colin Coyle
Tuesday November 23 2021, 6.10pm GMT, The Times
Paddy Cosgrave, one of the founders of the Web Summit, allegedly hacked into the email system of a rival tech summit to find out what it knew about his own conference company’s operations, according to an affidavit.
Daire Hickey, one of the three founders of the Web Summit, filed the affidavit as part of a new case being taken in the High Court in Dublin by his company, Lazvisax, against Cosgrave; Manders Terrace, the Web Summit’s parent company; and Proto Roto, Cosgrave’s private investment vehicle. Many of the claims in his affidavit echo allegations made by David Kelly, the other co-founder of the Web Summit, against Cosgrave in a case filed earlier this month.
Both men are suing Cosgrave, who owns 81 per cent of the company, for alleged “shareholder oppression”. Kelly owes 12 per cent, while Hickey owes 7 per cent. In the commercial court earlier this month, Cosgrave said he would “vigorously defend” the proceedings by Kelly.
In his affidavit Hickey claims Cosgrave targeted the Dublin Tech Summit in 2016, the year the Dublin Web Summit left Ireland for Lisbon. He claims the board of the Web Summit sought legal advice as to whether the newly established technology conference, founded by Ian Hyland and Ben English, could be guilty of “passing off” because of similarities to the recently departed Web Summit. Cosgrave also feared the Dublin Tech Summit may have access to information about the inner workings of the Web Summit.
The first Dublin Tech summit attracted 10,000 people to the Dublin Convention Centre in February 2017, helping to fill the void left by the Web Summit. At the time, Cosgrave was concerned it posed a threat to the Web Summit, particularly as it was based in Dublin.
Hickey claims the Dublin Tech Summit discovered its email system had been compromised and wrote to the Web Summit, accusing it of being behind the “hack”. He claims Cosgrave then admitted to colleagues, including him, that he was responsible and had done it to identify whether it possessed data relating to the Web Summit. Given this revelation, the Web Summit had to abandon any plans to take a “passing off” case against the Dublin Tech Summit, Hickey claims. He argues this damaged the company’s ability to address the commercial threats to it posed by its new rival.
Hickey alleges that Cosgrave shrugged off the incident as a minor one and claimed it was justified. He also claims the company hired a consultant to advise on the possible public relations fallout if news of the “hacking” emerged.
Hickey claims Cosgrave’s belief that Denis O’Brien, the businessman, was supporting the Dublin Tech Summit soured the relationship between the Web Summit and the mobile phone tycoon. He claims O’Brien gave more than €200,000 in sponsorship to the Web Summit in its early years and that Cosgrave and O’Brien enjoyed a good relationship. Cosgrave even flew on O’Brien’s jet to Davos in Switzerland and to America, Hickey said.
When O’Brien’s companies stopped sponsoring the Web Summit, Cosgrave allegedly grew suspicious that O’Brien was supporting the rival Dublin Tech Summit. Cosgrave subsequently engaged in a campaign of abuse against O’Brien on social media, Hickey claims. He believes this could have cost the company future sponsorship by dissuading other business figures in Ireland from sponsoring it.
Hickey, who resigned as an employee of the Web Summit in 2017 and as a director in 2019, alleges Cosgrave tried to force him out by claiming that as Hickey was based in America, he could not contribute to the Web Summit’s work. Hickey said he has since learned that Cosgrave had set out to “destroy” his reputation to force him out of the company.
Among the other allegations made by Hickey, many of which echo claims by Kelly, are that Cosgrave failed to observe corporate governance norms, undermined the Web Summit brand through his behaviour on social media, used company funds without proper oversight or authorisation, and set out to undermine Hickey and devalue his shareholding.
Most recently he claims Cosgrave bought a 0.25 per cent stake in Camile Thai, the take away business, from Trevor White, using €50,000 of company money without notifying other shareholders.
In response to the allegations, a spokesman for Cosgrave said: “We reject the baseless claims contained in Daire Hickey’s opportunistic legal action and we note his wholly one-sided version of the circumstances surrounding his exit from Web Summit.”
The Dublin Tech Summit declined to comment when contacted yesterday.
Cosgrave, through Manders Terrace, is separately suing Kelly and a business associate, Patrick Murphy, in both Ireland and San Francisco. He claims the two men secretly established an investment fund that he claims benefited from its association to the Web Summit brand. Cosgrave, who partnered with the men on a previous fund, claims he was cut out of the new fund.
Kelly and Murphy have described Cosgrave’s case as “meritless” and said they managed the previous fund independently of the Web Summit. They claim Cosgrave told them in March he did not want to co-operate with them on any future funds. They say they then negotiated a “separation agreement” with “favourable” terms for Cosgrave.
I wonder does the Joe Show have any shares in Camile Thai? The above gives the company a €20m valuation.
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