Love it or hate it, a media outlet like The Ditch is removing one of the key conditions for corruption: the opportunity to get away with it.
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".
The chief executive of Web Summit is continuing her PR offensive and marking a new era of leadership for the company in an interview with the Masters of Scale podcast.
Web Summit shareholder Daire Hickey alleges his interests have been further damaged by clients and speakers disassociating themselves from last week's Lisbon event. Hickey also takes aim at coverage of the conflict by The Ditch, the media outlet funded by the company during Cosgrave's tenure as CEO.
An Israeli cybersecurity start-up has been trying to give Web Summit Ventures back a six-figure investment in its seed round for five weeks following Paddy Cosgrave's online remarks about Israel, but it claims it is being ignored by the Irish company.
For the first time in its existence, Web Summit was devoid of Paddy Cosgrave's physical presence. What the conference lacked in stars and investors, it had a chance to make up for in other areas.
Web Summit opens with a lacklustre line-up but five bustling pavilions and a dedicated team of staffers are keeping it all together, writes Rosanna Cooney in Lisbon.
When a CEO is intrinsic to the brand they represent, they have an added burden. When they speak, write or tweet, they are their brand in a very real sense, and their words become the brand’s words. Paddy Cosgrave put himself in this category.
The hugely influential personality Prof Scott Galloway has criticised Paddy Cosgrave for being a "terrible leader" and has explained his reasons, personal and political, for withdrawing from Web Summit where he was slated as a keynote speaker.
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.
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