Mike Lynch, a prominent British businessman, recently went missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. In the incident, one person was confirmed dead, and six others remain missing. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who owned the yacht, was rescued.
Mike Lynch was born on June 16, 1965, in Ireland. Lynch’s father was a firefighter and his mother a nurse. He studied physics, biochemistry and mathematics at Cambridge University. In 1996, Lynch founded Autonomy, a company renowned for data analysis.
While it is true that he is often referred to as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” his story is quite different from that of Bill Gates.
In 2011, HP acquired his Autonomy Company for $11 billion. After selling Autonomy, Lynch established a tech investment firm called Invoke Capital and invested in the British cybersecurity company Darktrace.
After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch was accused of inflating the company’s value and was sued for fraud in a U.S. court in 2018. Lynch feared that the case could be so severe that he might die in prison due to a serious lung condition. He fought a long legal battle to prove his innocence and was acquitted of all charges in June 2024.
The 56-meter-long British-flagged yacht, which carried 22 people, was caught in severe weather conditions. Eyewitnesses reported that before the yacht sank, 15 people managed to escape, including Mike Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, and a one-year-old girl.
The names of the deceased and missing were not immediately released, but a person familiar with the rescue operation confirmed that Lynch was not accounted for. Italian media reported that the deceased individual was the yacht’s chef.
Rescue divers are attempting to reach the yacht, which sank to a depth of about 50 meters. Those rescued have been quickly transported to hospitals and are now in stable condition.
Most of the survivors are colleagues of Lynch and are deeply traumatized. As time passes, they are increasingly realizing that they have lost many friends.
A nearby boat’s captain reported that when the winds intensified, he turned on his engine to maintain control of his vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian, which had been anchored next to him. He said,We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm had passed, we noticed that the yacht behind us was missing. He added that the other yacht “went flat on the water and then sank.”
He also mentioned that his crew found some survivors on a life raft – including three who were seriously injured, and a baby girl and her mother – and took them on board before the coast guard arrived.
As of now, there is still no sign of Mike Lynch.