UK tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch missing after yacht sinks at Sicily

Renowned UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is reportedly among those missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

Sources familiar with the situation report that Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued, while several others remain unaccounted for following the sinking of the 56-meter superyacht, named the Bayesian, in severe weather conditions. The Financial Times was the first to report this incident.

Camper and Nicholsons, the yacht’s management company, confirmed that the Bayesian encountered extreme weather before sinking near Palermo in the early hours of Monday morning.

There were 12 guests and 10 crew members on board. The Italian coast guard has so far rescued 15 individuals, but six people are still missing. Tragically, local fire department officials have confirmed the recovery of one body.

What to Know

Mike Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy, was recently acquitted of criminal charges in a high-profile case in San Francisco, concluding a 12-year legal battle over the $11 billion sale of his software company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

The Italian coastguard reports that the yacht now rests at a depth of approximately 50 meters. Those rescued include British, American, and Canadian nationals, with eight individuals transferred to local hospitals for treatment.

The 180-foot yacht, with a gross tonnage of 473 tons, was built by the Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008 and underwent a major refit in 2020. It features a deck area of 436 square meters and six cabins totaling 143 square meters. The yacht, constructed with an aluminum hull, is powered by two engines allowing it to cruise at 12 knots and reach a top speed of 15 knots. Notably, it boasts the second tallest mast in the world, an aluminum structure standing 75 meters high.

Currently, Sicily is under a weather warning for strong winds, with video footage from this morning showing powerful gusts hitting the coast. CCTV footage around 4 a.m. captured severe wind and rain impacting Santa Nicolicchia, near Porticello, where the Bayesian had been anchored.

About Mike Lynch

Mike Lynch, a prominent figure in the UK technology sector, began his entrepreneurial journey in the late 1980s while working on his PhD. He first founded Lynett Systems Ltd, which developed audio products, and later established Cambridge Neurodynamics, a company specializing in fingerprint recognition technology.

Cambridge Neurodynamics eventually spun off three companies, including Autonomy, which Lynch co-founded in 1996. Autonomy, a search software company, grew to become one of the UK’s top 100 public companies and was sold to Hewlett-Packard for over $11 billion in 2011. This high-profile sale led to a series of civil and criminal cases against Lynch and Autonomy’s CFO.

After leaving Autonomy, Lynch founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that invested in several tech companies, including Darktrace, a leading cybersecurity firm, and Featurespace, which specializes in fraud detection.

Lynch held numerous high-profile advisory and board roles throughout his career but resigned from these positions after facing fraud charges in the United States. Despite his legal challenges, Lynch’s impact on the tech industry remains significant.