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Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Looks like the Web Summit was doing quite well in Dublin

Back when the event’s organisers and the government were still friends, at least.

THE COMPANY BEHIND the Web Summit had a €2.5 million pool of cash left over after putting the wraps on its flagship event in 2014.

Newly filed accounts for Manders Terrace Limited, the holding company behind the Web Summit and other related firms, showed the outfit had built up both substantial funds – and also significant debts – by the end of that year.

An estimated 20,000-plus attendees flocked to the 2014 event in Dublin’s RDS, the fourth time it was held in the venue, to hear from speakers like Bono and suffer the now-infamous patchy WiFi.

The figures showed the company, set up by current CEO Paddy Cosgrave, Daire Hickey and David Kelly, had funds in the bank worth €2.5 million and almost another €1 million owing to it as of 31 December, 2014.

The cash pool was up nearly €1.4 million on the amount the firm had on hand a year earlier.

However the accounts also revealed the company had debts due within a year that were worth more than €2.4 million, compared to €660,000 in 2013.

Web Summit

In September, Cosgrave announced last year’s Web Summit, which attracted over 40,000 people, would be the last in Dublin after the event’s organisers decided to move it to Lisbon for at least three years.

Portuguese officials will pay €1.3 million per year to the company to host the event in the country’s capital.

Cosgrave later claimed the more than €800,000 in funding the Web Summit had received from Irish government agencies during the event’s tenure amounted to “nothing more than hush money”.

Web Summit 2014 - Dublin Cosgrave and Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the 2014 Web Summit Brian Lawless / PA Archive Brian Lawless / PA Archive / PA Archive

According to the accounts, Cosgrave, Hickey and Kelly shared in directors’ payments worth €288,000 in 2014, a reduction on the €368,000 they received in 2013.

The company employed an average of 66 staff in 2014 and paid out €3 million in salaries, compared to only 37 staff and a wage bill of under €1.6 million in 2013.

READ: Now the ribbon cutting is done, this is what Uber has in store for Ireland >

READ: Six months after a €32 million windfall, the Irish founder of Hassle is on the way out >

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25 Comments
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    Mute Tom Murphy
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:24 PM

    Funny that a business so much in favour of the “Free Market” would leave Dublin because of the lack of governmental hand outs…

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Jan 13th 2016, 8:22 PM

    The one thing that I remember is the cost of lunches and what they actually got! That was embarrassing!

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    Mute Gggordon
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:58 PM

    And they wanted the government to stump up for free leap cards for the people who paid him 1000′s to go!! They guy is a despicable greedy charlatan… Trying to make himself out to be a hero when it was all about the coin in his own arse pocket. Delighted that the government saw through him and let him off to milk other unfortunates

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    Mute Alien8
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:16 PM

    Not surprised they are profitable, when they outsource nearly all of the resource requirements to unpaid “volunteers”, and for all the waffle of social engineering, the whole summit could be organised on a laptop. It was a shame that that level of profit want enough for paddy, but I suppose when you are in the shadow of Peter Theil and Elon musk and call yourself a founder (you’re not, this is a private events company, nothing more), you will get greedy and look for more of others for free.

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    Mute Charlie Fogarty
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:24 PM

    I think most vendors and attendees would disagree with the headline..

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    Mute jane
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:26 PM

    Yeah it should say Paddy Cosgrave was doing well in Dublin.

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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:03 PM

    I don’t think that’s a fabulous state of affairs. Just about enough cash to cover next 12 months of creditors, never mind the expenses like future wages. A million owed by these vendors/debtors, they will be under big pressure to get that debtor figure down just to keep the ball rolling.

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    Mute SMcB
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    Jan 13th 2016, 8:44 PM

    As long as the cash continues to roll in I doubt it would be a problem… As well… We don’t know what accruals are built into those figures… It’s not the worst state of affairs for a 5 year old company…

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    Mute Hypernova
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:17 PM

    Can someone explain to me why Dublin still can’t have a ‘Web Summit’ this year?.Is there a copyright on the name ‘Web Summit’ or something?.Whats stopping a few rich lads getting together and organising a new one.

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    Mute Darragh Flynn
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    Jan 14th 2016, 9:02 AM

    There’s always a ton of Tech Events on around Dublin from Startup Weekend to Google Developer Group Meetups. It doesn’t take a circus to make a good tech event. Also there’s a team working behind the summit who would need to be assembled. Have a look on Meetup.com for entrepreneurial/developer events that are generally free.

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    Mute MeanderingsNI
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    Jan 14th 2016, 9:28 AM

    What are you on about, there is no Tech events on the scale of the ‘web summit’ worth talking about.

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    Mute NO 2 FF/FG/LAB
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:44 PM

    All that money left over? Go buy some wifi

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    Mute bopter
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    Jan 13th 2016, 8:47 PM

    He tried to. The old farts in the RDS didn’t know what the heck they were doing.

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    Mute NO 2 FF/FG/LAB
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    Jan 13th 2016, 9:47 PM

    You could set up the rds with the most advanced broadband infastructure on the planet with the kind of money left over.

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    Mute voice of raisin
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    Jan 14th 2016, 2:10 AM

    bopter – completely incorrect. He went with the cheapest WiFi package available from the RDS, and unsurprisingly it wasn’t good enough for a tech conference.

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    Mute Ken Pepper
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:02 PM

    Greedy geeks

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    Mute James McCann
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:32 PM

    http://dublintechsummit.com/ could be interpreted as a replacement to the web summit but this crowd also know how to charge, €399.00 for an early bird ticket is pretty expensive.

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    Mute Declan Hickey
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:59 PM

    Ah those 50 euro burgers went down will.

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    Mute abquinlan
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    Jan 13th 2016, 6:47 PM

    Think free market is a very elastic concept.

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    Mute Tomas Mac Giolla Bhríde
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    Jan 13th 2016, 8:36 PM

    People still don’t get the irony, it’s called a web summit!

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    Mute bopter
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    Jan 13th 2016, 8:51 PM

    … And it was streamed live on the web for fee.
    No need to travel (for the main presentations anyway)

    The face-to-face networking opportunities were, however, incredibly useful.

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    Mute Matthew Kelly
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:09 PM

    Does anybody know the name of the venue in Lisbon?

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    Mute Alien8
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    Jan 13th 2016, 7:17 PM

    a cimeira?

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    Mute MeanderingsNI
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    Jan 14th 2016, 9:30 AM

    It will be a great event in Lisbon, beautiful city.

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