Who Is Mike Lynch, Tech Entrepreneur Among the Missing After a Superyacht Sank
The 59-year-old British tech investor, Mike Lynch, is said to be among the missing after a tornado hit a luxury yacht he was on board, sinking off the coast of Sicily, Italy, during the early hours of Monday, a source told CNN.
Lynch built much of his wealth through founding Autonomy, a technology company acquired in 2011 by Hewlett-Packard, or HP, for $11 billion. An attorney for Lynch said that the entrepreneur is worth approximately $450 million.
The Autonomy sale was one of the biggest British tech deals at the time, but it quickly went sour as HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion within a year. It was thought that the purchase would drive the software business at HP. Instead, the blockbuster sale has been dogged by legal problems that recently culminated with a fraud trial.
Prosecutors argued Lynch and ex-Autonomy finance executive Stephen Chamberlain had conspired to boost Autonomy sales before its sale to HP. In June, a San Francisco court cleared Lynch of 15 charges — one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud.
Surprisingly, the decision was in Lynch’s favor. Speaking to the Times, a UK news daily, he said, “When you hear that answer, you jump universes. If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense.”.
From its beginnings in 1996, Autonomy grew to become the largest Software Company in Britain, a blue-chip member of the FTSE 100 index. At the time, Lynch was being hailed by academics and scientists alike, and the British government had asked for his advice on technology and innovation.
The boat Lynch was aboard, the Bayesian, reportedly is in his wife Angela Bacares’ name and was one of those rescued. According to ownership records held by maritime information service Equasis, the 56-meter yacht is owned by the Isle of Man-registered Revtom Limited, which belongs to his wife.
A further fifteen of them were rescued from the scene. One of the children was airlifted to the children’s hospital in Palermo, and eight hospitalized their total according to the mayor’s office numbers. A body was recovered on the hull of the yacht, adds the Coast Guard.
