Mike Lynch, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Autonomy unit, speaks at a conference Thursday, April 25, 2013.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON — British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, was confirmed to have been rescued.
The superyacht, named Bayesian, capsized around 5 a.m. local time while anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village located in the province of Palermo in Italy, according to various media reports.
The Bayesian, a 56-meter sailing ship that later sank off the Sicilian capital Palermo, is seen in Santa Flavia, Italy on Aug. 18, 2024 in this image taken from social media.
Baia Santa Nicolicchia | Fabio La Bianca | Via Reuters
The ship was reportedly struck by an unexpectedly violent storm.
At least one man died and six others were missing, while 15 people were rescued, including a 1-year-old baby, NBC News reported, citing local officials.
The yacht “suddenly sank” likely “due to terrible weather conditions,” the Bagheria City Council said, according to NBC.
A carabinieri vehicle is parked near the port where the search continues for missing passengers after a yacht capsized on August 19, 2024 off the coast of Palermo, Italy.
Vincenzo Pepe | Getty Images
Who is Mike Lynch?
Lynch, 59, is the founder of enterprise software company Autonomy. He became the target of a protracted legal battle with Hewlett Packard after the US tech giant accused him of inflating the value of Autonomy in an $11 billion sale.
HP wrote off $8.8 billion in Autonomy’s value within a year of buying it.
Lynch was extradited from Britain to the US last year to stand trial over the HP allegations. In June, he was acquitted of fraud charges after a three-month trial.
Lynch was born in Ilford, a large town in East London, in 1965 and grew up near Chelmsford in the English county of Essex. He attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences, focusing on areas such as electronics, mathematics and biology.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Lynch completed his Ph.D. in signal processing and communications.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Lynch founded a company called Lynett Systems Ltd. which produced audio designs and products for the music industry.
View of the MarineTraffic app (a website that tracks boats using publicly available transponders) on a mobile phone showing the yacht’s last known Bayesian location.
Yui Mok | PA Images | Getty Images
A few years later, in the early 1990s, he set up a fingerprint recognition business called Cambridge Neurodynamics, which counted South Yorkshire Police among its clients.
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 has grown into one of Britain’s largest technology companies.
Lynch was highly influential in the UK tech scene at the height of his success, having once been dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates by the media.
In 2012 he founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm focused on supporting European technology start-ups.
In his role as an entrepreneur, Lynch was closely involved in helping the UK cybersecurity company Darktrace and legal software startup Luminance are kicking off, backing both companies with substantial sums.
Lynch was previously a board member of the British broadcaster BBC. He also once served as an adviser to the British government on the Science and Technology Council.
