Inex blames boardroom infighting for missed deadline to file accounts

A tech group whose members include Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon has said continued infighting among its board has resulted in it missing a deadline to file its financial accounts on time.

Inex, a member-owned company that runs a system called peering, which involves the exchange of traffic between networks so that they can provide faster and more reliable services to customers, has been dealing with persistent governance problems in recent years.

In a letter to members in December, the company said a November 25th deadline to file financial accounts to the Companies Registration Office had been missed.

The letter said this was due to “protracted discussions in relation to disagreements at board level on aspects of the financial statements”.

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The correspondence, seen by The Irish Times, said this was “deeply regrettable but unavoidable given the circumstances”.

The letter said once the company’s auditors had signed off on the accounts it would hold an annual general meeting (agm) for members, who are made up of about 128 separate internet companies.

Members range from big tech groups such as Facebook owner Meta and Google, to companies such as Three, Eir and Netflix.

The recent letter said at the upcoming agm that the company’s directors hoped to provide “greater insight to the challenges we are facing and are trying to resolve at board level”. The board had been dealing with “a legacy of legal issues” that it had to hire external lawyers to resolve, it said.

The correspondence apologised that despite past promises of greater transparency, minutes of board meetings had not been shared with members.

“This is not acceptable and we have had drafts ready for issue; however, the board disagrees on the minutes. We are looking into ways of breaking the deadlock and hope to find a compromise soon,” it said.

The company’s board had previously stepped down, to be replaced in 2020, due to governance disputes.

Inex was set up in 1996 and operates a system called peering, which allows large internet companies to exchange traffic between their customers without having to pay a third party to carry that traffic across the internet.

One point of tension in the company in recent months has been the treatment of two individuals whose companies provide services to Inex, and whether they are contractors or key personnel.

It is understood advice from an accountancy firm last June suggested as the two men, Barry O’Donovan and Nick Hilliard, were heavily involved in the day-to-day running of Inex, they could be considered key management personnel.

In correspondence to members last July, Mr O’Donovan and Mr Hilliard rejected the suggestion and argued that they were clearly contractors.

The pair complained that their “long-standing contractual relationships” with Inex and its members appeared to have “suddenly and inexplicably been spotlighted as a major crisis”.

“It is fair to say that we’re both appalled at the extent to which we have been apparently dragged into this,” the correspondence stated.

In response to queries, Mr Hilliard and Mr O’Donovan said their companies “provide internet infrastructure contracting services to a number of clients”, including Inex. “It would be inappropriate for us to publicly comment on client matters,” they added.

Inex did not respond to requests for comment.