A settlement has been reached in the acrimonious High Court dispute between the three principal shareholders in Web Summit after a breakthrough in negotiations this week.
Counsel for all three parties informed the court on Thursday morning that all related matters had been resolved and asked the judge to put the case back for mention until April 29th.
Five interrelated lawsuits involving the former friends and business partners were being heard in a hotly contested and bitter High Court civil trial, which began last week.
All claims in the case have now been dropped on all sides.
Details of the settlement have not been made public. It was understood throughout the proceedings that minority shareholders David Kelly and Daire Hickey wanted Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave to acquire their shareholdings in the business.
Among the issues which had been due to be thrashed out in the proceedings were questions around the value of the company and their stake in it. However, Mr Cosgrave is likely to have agreed to pay out tens of millions of euro for the shares as part of the settlement.
Mr Cosgrave told reporters outside the court that the settlement means his former friends and business partners have “finally publicly accepted that I – and I alone – founded Web Summit in 2009″.
He also said that tweets he had posted about Mr Hickey on the X platform (formerly Twitter), which were described in court last week as “vulgar, crass and in bad taste”, would remain online “for all to see because they’re true”.
The tweets, which counsel for Mr Hickey had claimed were part of a campaign by Mr Cosgrave to blackmail and intimidate him, were discussed in court last week.
A source close to Mr Hickey and Mr Kelly told The Irish Times: “His tweets are no more true now than they were when he first posted them and were strongly contested in the court proceedings by Daire and David’s legal teams. All allegations have been dropped in this case – those include Paddy’s allegations against David and Daire.”
“Daire is very pleased with the outcome today,” a spokeswoman for Mr Hickey said in a statement. “He would like to thank his family, friends and colleagues as well as his excellent legal team, Dentons, and his barristers for their support throughout. He is now looking forward to getting back to work and his family life.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Kelly said: “David is very pleased that an agreement has been reached between the parties. He is grateful to Dillon Eustace, his entire legal team and his family and friends for their support throughout the process and the many years leading to this.”
The first witnesses were due to begin giving testimony in the trial this week before Mr Justice Michael Twomey on Tuesday implored all sides to redouble efforts to resolve the dispute outside the court to end what, he said, could otherwise turn into a lengthy legal case on appeal, potentially reaching as far as the Supreme Court and lasting until 2028.
Intensive negotiations took place between the legal teams on Tuesday afternoon and into Wednesday when Mr Justice Twomey granted a further adjournment after counsel for Mr Kelly told the court that progress had been made.
The three former friends had been engaged in a protracted and bitter dispute since 2021 involving allegations of blackmail and shareholder oppression.
The three men were directors in Web Summit with Mr Cosgrave holding 81 per cent of the shares, David Kelly having a 12 per cent stake and Mr Hickey 7 per cent.
