Michael Richard Lynch OBE DL FRS FREng, known as Mike Lynch, is a prominent British-Irish technology entrepreneur whose fortune has been a subject of significant interest.
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Lynch, the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation and founder of Invoke Capital, is also a co-founder of the cybersecurity company Darktrace.
As of the latest Sunday Times “Rich List,” Lynch’s net worth is estimated at £500 million ($965 million). His wealth is largely attributed to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011.
Autonomy, founded in Cambridge in 1996, grew into a leading British tech firm under Lynch’s leadership.
However, Lynch’s financial and legal troubles began shortly after the sale. HP reported a substantial writedown of $8.8 billion ($13 billion) in 2012, attributing over $5 billion ($7.4 billion) to alleged inflated data from Autonomy.
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This led to a decade-long fraud investigation, with prosecutors accusing Lynch of inflating Autonomy’s value prior to the sale.
In 2023, Lynch was extradited from Britain to the US to face 17 charges related to the fraud scheme. He spent the year under house arrest but was acquitted of all charges in June 2024.
Despite the legal battles, Lynch reportedly made approximately $815 million ($1.2 billion) from the Autonomy sale. Following his acquittal, he expressed relief at returning to the UK and focusing on his family and business endeavors.
Lynch has been missing since August 19, 2024, after the Bayesian, one of the world’s largest sailing yachts, capsized and sank off the coast of Sicily.
The circumstances surrounding his disappearance are under investigation, adding a tragic chapter to the story of the tech billionaire’s life and career.
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