Full coverage: Daire Hickey

The warring Web Summit shareholders have landed in the High Court for a nine week action to fight contesting claims of shareholder oppression and breach of fiduciary duties. Lawyers for the company and CEO Paddy Cosgrave got the ball rolling.

In a series of emails , minority Web Summit shareholders Daire Hickey and David Kelly complained to the board that they were being kept out of the loop after Cosgrave's controversial departure, and the ex-CEO appeared to be still "calling the shots".

In the absence of mediation or any move to agree a buyout of the minority interests, "expensive and complicated" remains the most likely forecast for this internecine corporate fight at the world's leading tech conference.

In a new court filing, Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave claims to "correct the record" on oppression allegations made against him by the company's shareholders. He also ups the stakes with a swathe of new claims about former business partner Daire Hickey.

The new suit against tech entrepreneur Paddy Cosgrave and Web Summit, filed two days before Christmas, is a spin-off from Daire Hickey’s minority shareholder oppression claim.

A confidential strategy document warned of the reputational considerations and advised Web Summit to get ahead of the story and downgrade as far as possible the alleged hacking of the Dublin Tech Summit.

Web Summit co-founder Daire Hickey claims Paddy Cosgrave told staff at a "town hall" address that they should either deal with the stress or leave the company and accept that they would only ever be "average people" or "civil servants". Hickey is suing Cosgrave for minority shareholder oppression.