British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, leaving one person dead and six others missing. The 56m superyacht, named Bayesian, has been linked to Mr. Lynch’s family, and his wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued from the wreckage.
Lynch, known for co-founding British tech firm Autonomy in 1996 and backing several successful tech firms, was once regarded as the UK’s answer to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He made his fortune by selling Autonomy to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11 billion.
However, Lynch’s wealth and success were overshadowed by an intense legal battle following the acquisition, with US prosecutors accusing him of fraud and artificially inflating Autonomy’s value. After facing two decades in jail, Lynch was acquitted in the US in June.
Born in 1965, Lynch studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and later founded Cambridge Neurodynamics before establishing Autonomy. His company’s software, based on “Bayesian inference,” gained recognition for its ability to extract useful information from data.
Despite the legal challenges, Lynch remained steadfast in his innocence and expressed his desire to return to innovating. The disappearance of the tech tycoon has left many questioning the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the yacht and hoping for his safe return.
