Update: Authorities have yet to gain access to the sunken yacht's interior, and Mike Lynch remains listed as missing. In the meantime, other details have emerged.
The accident appears to have been caused by a large storm and the resulting tornado-like waterspout that trapped and damaged the yacht. Among the other six people still missing are Lynch's 18-year-old daughter and Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer. The voyage was to celebrate Lynch's acquittal on criminal charges in the United States, and several members of his legal team were on board. (The ship was registered to Lynch's wife, one of the survivors.) In a horrific coincidence, Autonomy's chief financial officer Stephen Chamberlain, another man acquitted at Lynch's trial, was hit by a car while jogging and died a week ago. The original article continues below.
Mike Lynch, investor and prominent founder of British technology company Autonomy, has been declared missing at sea after the yacht he was on went missing. BayesianIt capsized off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning due to a storm.
TechCrunch confirmed with sources close to the rescue effort that Lynch was one of the six people missing from the boat. Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among the 15 people rescued. One body has been found.
The news comes as a dramatic and tragic twist for one of the most colourful and sometimes controversial figures in British technology.
Lynch's enterprise technology company Autonomy was acquired by HP for $11 billion in 2011. It was a major milestone for British technology. But it quickly turned sour, and HP sued Lynch and other executives, claiming they were misled in the deal.
HP claimed it lost $4 billion on the deal and has since demanded money from Lynch and his former CFO. Lynch (pictured above, left) has long maintained that he acted in good faith and was made a scapegoat for a merger gone wrong.
The legal drama lasted more than a decade and involved many other thorny issues, including Lynch’s extradition to the United States and some very bad publicity for Lynch himself. It also led to a second civil case in the United Kingdom in 2022, which Lynch lost.
Lynch's criminal case, in which he was charged with 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy, went to trial in San Francisco earlier this year. Lynch was finally acquitted in June.
“I am absolutely delighted with today’s verdict and would like to thank the jury for their careful attention to the facts over the past 10 weeks. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my legal team for their tireless work on my behalf,” Lynch said at the time. “I look forward to returning to the UK and doing what I love most – my family and continuing to innovate in my field.”
Meanwhile, Lynch had built up a profile as an investor in the UK, most notably as the founder of Invoke Capital. The VC firm was the largest investor in cybersecurity firm Darktrace, a connection that was not without controversy. He also invested in Sophia Genetics, Featurespace, Luminance, and others. And it seemed like this was the path he would continue on.
Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and colleagues. We will update this post as we learn more.
