Mike Lynch, 59, is the founder of enterprise software firm Autonomy. He was acquitted of fraud charges in June after defending himself in a trial over allegations that he artificially inflated Autonomy’s value in an $11.7 billion sale to tech giant Hewlett Packard.
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LONDON — British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been found dead in the wreckage of his superyacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily earlier this week. He was 59 years old.
Just two months ago, Lynch won a stunning victory in a landmark U.S. trial over allegations from Hewlett Packard that he had artificially inflated the value of his company Autonomy when he sold it to the U.S. enterprise tech giant for $11.7 billion in 2011.
Fears for Lynch’s life swirled earlier this week when he was reported missing after the sinking of a yacht — later confirmed as owned by his wife Angela Bacares — off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the province of Palermo in Italy.
Bacares was one of 15 people rescued rescued following the yacht’s collapse earlier this week.
The anchored vessel, a 56-meter (184 feet) sailing yacht named the Bayesian, was hit by a violent storm early Monday morning.
Witnesses told local media the anchored boat, which was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers, descended rapidly after its mast broke.
Lynch’s body was retrieved from the wreckage of the yacht Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC Thursday. His daughter, Hannah, remains unaccounted for, according to the source, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the situation. Sky News earlier reported the news.
‘Britain’s Bill Gates’
Born in Ilford, a large town in East London, to Irish parents in 1965, Lynch grew up near Chelmsford in the English county of Essex. His mother was a nurse and his father was a fireman.
Lynch had a modest upbringing but, at the age of 11, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Bancroft’s School, a private school in Woodford Green, East London.
Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, speaks at a Confederation of British Industry conference in London, U.K., in 2003.
Graham Barclay | Bloomberg | Getty Images
From Bancroft’s, he attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences, focusing on areas including electronics, mathematics and biology.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Lynch completed a Ph.D. in signals processing and communications.
Toward the end of the 1980s, Lynch founded Lynett Systems Ltd., a firm which produced designs and audio products for the music industry.
A few years later, in the early 1990s, he founded a fingerprint recognition business called Cambridge Neurodynamics, which counted the South Yorkshire Police among its customers.
But his big break came in 1996 with Autonomy, which he co-founded with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt as a spinoff from Cambridge Neurodynamics. The company scaled into one of Britain’s biggest tech firms.
Autonomy’s software, made up of pattern-matching algorithms, was touted as a solution that could help employees abstract meaning from unstructured data, including web pages, email, video, audio, and text.
These pattern recognition techniques were based on so-called Bayesian inference, a method of statistical inference named after a theorem developed by 18th century statistician Thomas Bayes.
Lynch’s luxury yacht, the Bayesian, was named after this mathematical model.
Autonomy founder Mike Lynch poses at the company’s then-offices near Cambridge, U.K, on Thursday, July 19, 2007.
Graham Barclay | Bloomberg | Getty Images
After the sale of his company to HP, Lynch became known by U.K. national media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” serving as a rare example of a U.K. businessman who successfully built and scaled a globally significant tech business selling into various markets around the world.
Legal battle with HP
However, Lynch’s reputation would go on to take a hit after the deal with HP took a turn for the worse. In 2012, HP took an $8.8 billion write-down on the value of Autonomy — just a year after buying it.
Lynch soon became the target of a protracted legal battle with the U.S. tech giant, with HP suing Lynch for $5 billion in damages over accusations that Lynch had inflated Autonomy’s sales by about $700 million.
Lynch, who had long denied the allegations, was extradited from Britain to the U.S. in 2023 to stand trial over the HP allegations.
This came despite pressure on the U.K. government from Lynch’s supporters not to allow his extradition.
U.S. prosecutors had filed criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy for an alleged scheme to inflate Autonomy’s revenue starting in 2009, partly to entice a buyer.
However, in a stunning victory in June, Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges following trial. The trial lasted three months.
Mike Lynch leaves the Rolls Building in London following the civil case over his £8.4 billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. Picture date: Monday March 25, 2019.
Dominic Lipinski | PA Images | Getty Images
During the course of the trial, Lynch took the stand in his own defense. He denied wrongdoing and told jurors that HP botched Autonomy’s integration.
Prosecutors had alleged Lynch, along with Autonomy’s now-deceased finance executive Stephen Chamberlain, who also died in a tragic car crash Saturday, padded Autonomy’s finances in a number of ways.
These included back-dated agreements, concealing the firm’s loss-making business by reselling hardware, and intimidating or paying off individuals who had raised concerns.
However, Lynch told jurors he had focused on tech-related matters at Autonomy, not finances.
Accounting and money decisions were left to Autonomy’s then-chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, he said.
Hussain was separately convicted in the U.S. in 2018 on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud related to the HP deal. He was released from prison in January after serving a five-year sentence.
Lynch’s influence on UK tech
Alongside founding Autonomy, Lynch also runs Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm focused on backing European tech startups. He founded Invoke in 2012.
He became a key voice supporting the U.K. technology industry, backing key names like cybersecurity firm Darktrace and legal tech firm Luminance.
Publicly listed Darktrace, which had fended off similar allegations of inflating its revenue by U.S. short seller Quintessential Capital Management, earlier this year agreed to a deal to be bought out and taken private by U.S. private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $5.32 billion in cash.
Lynch was previously on the board of U.K. broadcaster BBC, and once also served as an advisor to the U.K. government on the Council for Science and Technology.
In 2014 and 2015, he made the Forbes’ billionaires list, with an estimate net worth of $1 billion. However, while facing legal costs amid his dispute with HP, he dropped off that list in 2016.
Legal struggles aside, Lynch had several hobbies to keep him busy, including keeping and caring for cattle and pigs at his home in Suffolk.
Mike Lynch, founder of software firm Autonomy, at the company’s headquarters in, Cambridge, U.K., Aug. 24, 2000.
Bryn Colton | Hulton Archive | Getty Images
“I keep rare breeds,” Lynch told LeadersIn in a 2016 interview. “I have cows that became defunct in the 1940s and pigs that no one has kept since the medieval times and none of them have any Apple products whatsoever.”
Prior to his passing, Lynch had reportedly returned to his farm in Suffolk, a county in the east of England, to recover from his U.S. legal battle, the local East Anglian Times newspaper reported.
Just weeks before he was reported missing, Lynch told The Times newspaper of how he feared dying in prison if found guilty over the HP allegations.
“‘If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense,” Lynch said in the interview with The Times.
“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life – the question is, what do you want to do with it?” he added.
Key Takeaways
- Mike Lynch, the founder of Autonomy, has been found dead in the wreckage of his superyacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily.
- Lynch was a prominent figure in the UK tech industry, known for founding Autonomy and later becoming a venture capitalist.
- He was acquitted of fraud charges just two months ago after defending himself in a trial over allegations from Hewlett Packard that he had inflated the value of Autonomy before selling it to the company.
- Lynch had been reported missing following the sinking of his yacht, the Bayesian, which was hit by a severe storm on Monday.
- His daughter, Hannah, remains unaccounted for.
The Rise and Fall of a Tech Titan
This tragic news comes as a shock to the technology world. Mike Lynch was a towering figure in the UK’s tech landscape, revered for his entrepreneurial spirit and his role in building Autonomy, a firm that became a global leader in enterprise software.
Lynch’s journey began in a modest upbringing in East London, where a passion for technology blossomed early on. He secured a scholarship to a prestigious private school, Bancroft’s, before attending the esteemed University of Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences and later obtained a PhD in signals processing and communications.
Lynch’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident from his early days. After completing his studies, he ventured into the music industry with Lynett Systems Ltd., a firm that designed and produced audio products. He then founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, a pioneering fingerprint recognition firm that secured clients such as South Yorkshire Police.
However, his true claim to fame came in 1996, when he co-founded Autonomy with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt. The company quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the UK’s biggest technology firms. Autonomy’s software used sophisticated pattern-matching algorithms to help businesses extract meaning from unstructured data, such as emails, videos, and web pages. This innovative approach made Autonomy a powerful force in the data-driven revolution that was reshaping the world.
The success of Autonomy made Lynch a household name in the UK.
A Tumultuous Turn of Events
Despite his achievements, Lynch’s life was not without its share of challenges. The story of Autonomy’s sale to HP ultimately led to a bitter legal battle that would define Lynch’s later years. In 2011, HP acquired Autonomy for $11.7 billion, a move that was seen as a major victory for both companies. Lynch’s reputation was soaring, with many crowning him as "Britain’s Bill Gates."
However, the deal quickly soured. Less than a year after the acquisition, HP took a massive $8.8 billion write-down on Autonomy’s value, accusing Lynch of artificially inflating the company’s worth. The allegations shook the tech world and cast a long shadow over Lynch’s image.
The HP saga culminated in a protracted legal battle that lasted for years. Lynch vehemently denied the allegations, arguing that HP’s integration of Autonomy had failed, leading to the financial downturn. In 2023, he was extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges.
Despite the weight of the charges, Lynch was acquitted of all fraud charges this past June. The trial, which lasted for three months, was a major turning point in his journey, vindicating him in the eyes of many.
Beyond Autonomy
Lynch’s impact extends far beyond Autonomy. His venture capital firm Invoke Capital championed European tech startups, and he was a vocal advocate for the UK’s thriving tech sector. He served on the board of the BBC and advised the UK government on scientific and technological advancement.
Lynch’s passing is a loss not just for the tech industry, but for the UK as a whole. He was a shining example of British ingenuity and entrepreneurship and his legacy will continue to inspire generations of innovators.
Even as Lynch faced his legal battles, he remained passionate about his work and dedicated to his family. He returned to his farm in Suffolk to recharge and reflect on his life. This period of reflection, punctuated by his legal victory, seemingly offered him a renewed sense of purpose, a “second life” as he described it, before tragedy struck.
The world mourns the loss of a tech visionary who made an indelible mark on the industry. Mike Lynch’s story, a tale of triumph, controversy, and ultimately, tragedy, serves as a poignant reminder of the complexities of success and the fragility of life. Even as we grapple with the news of his passing, Lynch’s contributions to technology and his bold spirit will forever be remembered.
