Who is British tech tycoon Mike Lynch?

Mike Lynch, a British technology entrepreneur, has disappeared after his luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

After co-founding British technology company Autonomy in 1996 and backing several successful technology companies, he was seen by some as the British equivalent of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

One person died and six were missing when a 56-metre superyacht called Bayesian, linked to Mr Lynch’s family, sank in bad weather.

The British tech tycoon made his fortune when he sold his company Autonomy to American computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11 billion (£8.6 billion).

But after that high-profile takeover, Mr. Lynch was left facing a bitter legal battle for more than a decade.

In June, he was acquitted in the U.S. of numerous fraud charges that could have put him in prison for 20 years.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August, Mr Lynch said he believed he was only able to prove his innocence in a US court because of his wealth.

Cambridge and autonomy

Mr Lynch was born on 16 June 1965, the son of a nurse and a firefighter, and was raised near Chelmsford in Essex.

He studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in mathematical computation and later completed a research fellowship.

In 1991, Mr. Lynch helped found Cambridge Neurodynamics, a company specializing in computer-aided fingerprint detection and recognition.

His technology company Autonomy was founded five years later, with software based on a statistical method known as “Bayesian inference.”

The company’s dynamic growth and success in the late 1990s and early 21st century earned Mr. Lynch a number of awards and distinctions.

In 2006 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his services to British enterprise.

He served as a non-executive director on the BBC board and in 2011 was appointed to the government’s Science and Technology Council, advising then Prime Minister David Cameron on the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence.

After selling Autonomy to HP in 2011 – from which Mr Lynch is said to have made £500m – he founded technology investment firm Invoke Capital.

The venture capital fund invested in the establishment of British cybersecurity firm Darktrace in 2013.
Mr Lynch, a shareholder, served on the company’s board until earlier this year.

He and his wife have two daughters and live at Loudham Hall in Suffolk.

Sale to Hewlett-Packard
Autonomy found success with software that could extract useful information from data such as phone calls, emails and video recordings.
This data would then be used for activities such as suggesting responses to a call centre operator or monitoring TV channels for words or topics.
Prior to its acquisition by HP in 2011, Autonomy was headquartered in San Francisco and Cambridge.

However, after the sale, the price came under intense scrutiny, and Autonomy’s value dropped by billions just a year later.

In 2018, U.S. prosecutors brought charges against Mr. Lynch, accusing him of artificially inflating the company’s value.
They alleged he had concealed the company’s loss-making equipment resale business and accused him of intimidating and bribing people who reported suspicions.

In early August, Mr Lynch told BBC Radio 4 that although he was convinced of his innocence throughout the lengthy trial, he believed he would only be able to prove it in a US court because of his wealth.

“As a British citizen, you should not need funds to protect yourself,” he said.

“The reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but I had enough money to not get caught up in a lawsuit that was set up to trap you.”

He added that after a long legal history, he wants to “get back to what he loves to do, which is innovation.”

By BBC News

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