Mike Lynch, a well-known technology businessman from the UK, is one of the people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was saved by rescue teams, but several others are still missing. This happened after their 56-meter yacht named the Bayesian got caught in bad weather. This was first reported by the Financial Times.
The yacht management company, Camper and Nicholsons, said that the yacht faced tough conditions before it sank near Palermo early Monday morning.
There were 12 guests and 10 crew members on the yacht. So far, the Italian coast guard has saved 15 people, but six people are still missing. Sadly, one person has been found dead, according to the local fire department.
What to Know
Mike Lynch was the previous CEO of a company called Autonomy. He was recently cleared of criminal charges in a big legal case in San Francisco. This case was about the $11 billion sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and it lasted for 12 years.
The yacht is now lying about 50 meters underwater. The people rescued include those from the UK, USA, and Canada. Eight of them were taken to hospitals for treatment.
The yacht was 180 feet long and weighed 473 tons. It was built by Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008 and had a big upgrade in 2020.
The yacht had a large deck area and six cabins. Its aluminum hull and two powerful engines allowed it to cruise at 12 knots and go up to 15 knots at top speed.
The yacht had the second tallest mast in the world, standing 75 meters high.
Currently, Sicily is experiencing bad weather with strong winds. Video footage from earlier today shows strong winds hitting the coast. CCTV captured around 4 am showed strong wind and rain hitting Santa Nicolicchia, near Porticello, where the Bayesian was anchored.
About Mike Lynch
Mike Lynch started his business career in the late 1980s while doing his Ph.D. He started Lynett Systems Ltd, a company that made audio products. Later, he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, a company that specialized in fingerprint recognition. Cambridge Neurodynamics created three other companies including Autonomy, which Lynch started in 1996. Autonomy, a search software company, became one of the UK’s top 100 public companies and was sold to Hewlett-Packard for over $11 billion in 2011. This sale led to legal issues for Lynch and the CFO of Autonomy.
After selling Autonomy, Lynch started a venture capital firm called Invoke Capital. This firm invested in tech companies like Darktrace, which focuses on cybersecurity, and Featurespace, which focuses on fraud detection.
Lynch held several important advisory and board roles but stepped down from these jobs after being charged with fraud in the United States. Despite these legal troubles, Mike Lynch still has a significant influence in the tech industry.