UK industry reacts as Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch goes missing after yacht disaster
The UK tech industry is mourning the loss of one of its titans as Autonomy and Darktrace founder Mike Lynch has been missing for more than a day after a sailboat he was holidaying on sank off the coast of Italy.
The 56-metre sailboat, known as the Bayesian, was owned by his wife, Angela Bacares. It sank after being hit by an extreme storm near Sicily. Reports suggest there were 22 passengers on board.
At the time of writing, the body of a crew member has been recovered and 15 people successfully rescued, including Bacares. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter remain missing, alongside four others.
The maritime disaster comes two months after Lynch finally cleared his name of fraud in the US, returning to the UK after a year of house arrest in San Francisco and a weeks-long trial. In a wild coincidence, his sole co-defendant in the fraud case, former Autonomy VP of Finance Stephen Chamberlain, was killed just this weekend after a car hit him while running in Cambridgeshire.
The coincidence has already sparked conspiracy theories online — and no wonder, with tragedy striking both men just weeks after being cleared of a fraud that may have cost HP billions.
Britain’s Bill Gates
Awarded an OBE in 2006, Lynch was once lauded as Britain’s Bill Gates. Though that moniker was surely intended as a sign of success in software, Lynch also faced legal challenges like his American counterpart. But rather than antitrust regulators, Lynch was targeted by former business partners in the form of HP.
In 2011, HP stepped up to buy business data search firm Autonomy for $11 billion — already a high premium on its value at the time. But a year later, HP wrote down the value of its purchase by $8.8 billion, alleging fraud. Investigations followed, as did court cases. There was a civil suit in the UK, which eventually hit the High Court; a suit that HP won.
Criminal charges then loomed in the US. Autonomy’s CFO Sushovan Hussain was jailed for five years for fraud, and Lynch and Chamberlain were indicted for fraud and conspiracy charges worth 25 years in prison. After a political battle, they were extradited last year, spending a year under house arrest before the trial began this spring. Both were acquitted.
Lynch told reporters at the beginning of June: “I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”
Tech tributes to Mike Lynch
The UK tech industry turned to social media to share their Lynch stories. One former colleague described Lynch as having a fantastic mind, being wonderful to work with and being a true pioneer. IT analyst Richard Holway called him a “unique British tech talent”.
Glyn Powditch, Co-Founder of Dream Agility, recalled to one industry website how he was struck by Lynch’s brilliance. “Lynch built great companies with vision and culture that inspired so many, myself included. He’s a true pioneer and inspired many entrepreneurs to forge their own paths,” he told BusinessCloud. “It feels ironic that this should have happened during a trip that was meant to celebrate his acquittal from a charge that had cast a long shadow in recent years.”
MP Patrick Spencer posted on LinkedIn that Lynch was “one of Britain’s genuine business success stories”. James Bethell, once the manager of Ministry of Sound nightclub but now a hereditary peer in the House of Lords, recalled Lynch offering “encouragement and respect” on a pitch he turned down.
But perhaps members of the British government and the tech media should recall they didn’t do enough to support Lynch throughout his legal challenges. That’s according to former journalist and communications specialist David Yelland, who counted Lynch as a friend and client, writing after the acquittal that the government failed to prevent his extradition to the US despite the allegations happening in the UK, and the local tech media lacked the courage to stand up for Lynch.
Yelland later posted a personal statement: “To think Mike Lynch might have lost his life just as he began to rebuild it is devastating for all those that know him. His entire life is one of beating the odds in the most extraordinary of situations, we must pray he does so again.”
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Nicole Kobie
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