In a statement announcing his resignation Saturday, Cosgrave said the remarks—in which he criticized Western leaders’ and governments’ rhetoric surrounding Israel’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack—had become a distraction from Web Summit’s forthcoming event in Portugal. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: Web Summit runs some of the world’s largest tech conferences, including Collision, which Toronto is hosting for the fourth time next June. Despite stepping down from his chief executive and board positions, Cosgrave still owns 80 per cent of Web Summit, company spokesperson Katherine Farrell confirmed to The Logic. The company faced intense backlash over Cosgrave’s remarks, with several high-profile executives and firms, including Amazon, Google and Meta, backing out of next month’s conference in Lisbon, despite the co-founder’s attempts to walk back his original remarks. The Lisbon event and another in Qatar in February are scheduled to go ahead. Farrell said the company will appoint a new CEO “as soon as possible.”