British Tech Titan Mike Lynch Missing After Superyacht Sinks Off Sicily
About 2.5 months after British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was acquitted of fraud by a San Francisco jury over the disastrous 2011 sale of his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion, the billionaire—once hailed as Britain's answer to Bill Gates—has gone missing after a superyacht he was on sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm.
The Telegraph reports Lynch is among those missing after the superyacht "Bayesian" sank around 0500 local time Monday off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing town located on Sicily's western seaboard between Palermo and Cefalu.
The Italian coastguard said the vessel sank to a depth of 50 meters. They said 15 people were rescued, eight British, American, and Canadian nationals.
The Telegraph said, "Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, is among those rescued."
One body was recovered, the Italian coastguard said, adding, "There are currently seven missing, one crew member and six passengers, of British, American and Canadian nationality."
Few days ago we encountered the exquisite Bayesian vessel,anchored near us. All night until sunrise we took plenty of picts of it. The 75-meter mast illuminated at night was spectacular. We speculated about the individuals on board,enjoying the time of their lives. What a tragedy pic.twitter.com/OqYIwaV1vb
— Khorakhane 🍉 (@Khorakhane100) August 19, 2024
This incident comes 2.5 months after Lynch was cleared of charges alleging he orchestrated fraud and conspiracy ahead of the 2011 Autonomy-Hewlett-Packard deal.
"This is a momentous day in Autonomy's history," Lynch declared following the sale of Autonomy to HP in August 2011.
By November 2012, HP's management had written down the value of Autonomy by $8 billion, alleging "serious" accounting issues, disclosure failures, and "outright misrepresentations" before the purchase. After years of investigations and legal proceedings, a US federal grand jury indicted Lynch on criminal charges in November 2018. After the civil case concluded, the UK agreed to extradite him.
On June 6, a federal court jury in San Francisco reached not-guilty verdicts following an 11-week criminal trial.
Lynch said he was "elated" to have been found not guilty: "The truth has finally prevailed." He has denied any wrongdoing.
We've detailed HP's long list of failed acquisitions in a series of posts earlier this year:
Bloomberg noted in June that even after the acquittal, HP is still seeking $4 billion from Lynch.
And now Lynch is missing...