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Here’s what to know about Mike Lynch, the tech tycoon missing in the Sicily yacht disaster
Mike Lynch, once hailed as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” is now among the six people missing after his luxury yacht sank in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily. At the time of the disaster, Lynch had been trying to shake more than a decade of legal entanglements that ended in June when he was cleared of fraud and conspiracy charges.
Lynch, 59, rose to prominence in the late 1990s with the development of his software company, Autonomy, which helped businesses quickly find information buried in email and other digital documents. In 2011, Lynch sold the business to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion, giving him a $800 million payday and cementing him as one of the U.K.’s richest people.
But the acquisition was later called one of the “most notorious failed mergers and acquisitions” after HP discovered alleged accounting issues, leading to Lynch’s firing by HP’s then-CEO, Meg Whitman. HP claimed that Autonomy had used accounting improprieties to bolster its underlying financials ahead of the acquisition, charges that Lynch steadfastly denied.
The case stretched into a 12-year legal fight that ended in June 2024 when a federal court jury in San Francisco delivered not-guilty verdicts.
“I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most — my family and innovating in my field,” Lynch said in a statement after the verdict.
Here’s what to know about Lynch.
What company did Mike Lynch start?
Lynch, who earned a PhD in mathematical computing from the U.K.’s Cambridge University, first cofounded a company called Cambridge Neurodynamics, based on the cofounders’ work with pattern recognition. The firm used the tech to match fingerprints and car license plates, according to a 1997 article in The Guardian.
From there, Lynch cofounded Autonomy in 1996, which relied on a statistical model called Bayesian inference, named after a theorem developed by the 18th century statistician Thomas Bayes. (Lynch’s luxury yacht was christened the “Bayesian.”)
The company tapped into the growing need of businesses to sort through and find information within the vast reams of data created by the increasing use of computers and digital documents.
Autonomy’s steady growth during its first decade resulted in Lynch being awarded one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.
Lynch told The Guardian in 1997 that people didn’t quite believe that a growing tech business could emerge from the U.K.
“I have actually heard the comment, ‘England, software? I thought you made bone china,'” he told the newspaper.
What happened after Autonomy’s acquisition by HP?
At first, HP celebrated the purchase as a huge coup that would propel the Palo Alto, California, company down a promising new path, but then quickly came to regret it under then-CEO Meg Whitman.
HP claimed it found accounting irregularities, and the company ended up recognizing $8.8 billion in losses in the Autonomy deal. Whitman eventually fired Lynch in 2012, while also laying off thousands of workers as HP’s fortunes sagged.
Throughout the past 12 years, Lynch rejected the allegations. He told the Wall Street Journal in 2012 that he was “ambushed” by the claims, which he described as “completely and utterly wrong.”
What happened with Mike Lynch’s legal case?
Lynch maintained his innocence while testifying earlier this year before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove allegations that Lynch engaged in accounting duplicity that bilked billions of dollars from HP.
The jury, as noted above, delivered not-guilty verdicts in June, vindicating Lynch, who pledged to return to the U.K. and to find new ways to innovate.
Who is Mike Lynch’s wife?
Mike Lynch is married to Angela Bacares, who is one of the people rescued from the Mediterranean after the yacht sank. Lynch and Barares have two daughters. One of them, Hannah, 18, is among the missing, according to the BBC.
Bacares, 57, owns shares in Darktrace, a British cybersecurity company she and Lynch co-founded, the Sun noted. She sat in the front row of the courtroom during her husband’s trial, but generally has preferred to stay out of the public eye, the Times of London reported in July.
“We made the decision that Angela would not be involved in the case. She stayed completely separate. Her focus was the family and children,” Lynch told the Times last month.
— With reporting by the Associated Press.
An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing at LAX after blowing out a tire during its takeoff at Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C.
The aircraft landed at LAX at about 8:10 p.m. without incident. First responders were standing by on the runway as a precaution.
Out of the 175 passengers and six crew members aboard Flight 309, no one was injured.
“While this incident is a rare occurrence, our flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios,” the airliner stated.
Alaska stated that the pilot declared the emergency landing as a precaution to ensure the flight had extra support if needed.
The company said it would investigate what caused the Boeing 737-900 to malfunction. The aircraft will not be in service during the investigation.
CBS News
German soccer club St. Pauli quits X ahead of snap elections, calls platform a “hate machine”
A German soccer club is leaving X because of the increase in hate speech and disinformation on the social media platform that it claims could undermine the snap elections in the country.
FC St. Pauli announced the decision on Thursday, saying billionaire owner Elon Musk has turned the platform into a “hate machine” since he took over the company in 2022.
“Racism and conspiracy theories are allowed to spread unchecked and even curated,” St. Pauli said in a statement. “Insults and threats are seldom sanctioned and are sold as freedom of speech.”
The club said it had already limited posts on X and increased “political statements in support of diversity and inclusion to make a stand against hate.”
Selim Sudheimer / Getty Images
Named after Hamburg’s St. Pauli district, the club, which plays in the Bundesliga, is known among soccer fans for its left-leaning supporter base. Fan groups often chant anti-racist slogans and promote diversity within the club.
St. Pauli also underlined Musk’s role in last week’s U.S. presidential election, and alleged his platform could affect the outcome of the snap elections in Germany, which are scheduled to take place next February, by “manipulating the public discourse.”
“Musk was a major backer of the Trump campaign and also used X for this purpose,” the club said. “It is to be assumed that X will also promote authoritarian, misanthropic and far-right content during the forthcoming German election campaign.”
St. Pauli said it would no longer share content on X but it will not deactivate the account. The club urged supporters to follow its updates on Bluesky, an alternative social media platform that has observed a surge of new members after President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory last week.
Musk was a key figure in Trump’s third election campaign, donating millions of dollars and promoting content for his message on X. Trump announced this week that he will be part of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency alongside fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who sought the Republican Party’s nomination.
On Nov. 6, the German coalition government collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the finance minister, who represented the pro-business Free Democratic Party. The chancellor will seek a vote of confidence at the German Bundestag in December.
St. Pauli aims to migrate its nearly 250,000 followers ahead of February’s snap elections in Germany in which the center-right opposition Christian Democratic Union is expected to make significant gains.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party has also gained popularity. With 76 seats, it is the fifth largest party in the Bundestag. In September’s Thuringian state election, the AfD became the first far-right party in Germany to have won an election since World War II.
CBS News
Trump meets with Argentina’s president, the first foreign leader he’s met with since election
Donald Trump met Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago club with Argentine President Javier Milei, the first foreign leader to meet with the president-elect since his victory in last week’s election.
The meeting was confirmed by a person who insisted on anonymity to discuss an event that hadn’t yet been announced publicly. The person said the meeting went well and said Milei also met with investors.
A short time later, Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” and frequent recipient of Trump praise, addressed the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago. He slammed left-wing ideologies and saluted Elon Musk, the owner of X, saying his social media site is helping to “save humanity.”
Trump also spoke to the gala crowd, congratulating Milei “for the job you’ve done for Argentina” and saying it was an “honor” to have Argentina’s president at Mar-a-Lago.
“The job you’ve done is incredible. Make Argentina Great Again, you know, MAGA. He’s a MAGA person,” Trump said to applause. “And you know, he’s doing that.”
Shortly after Milei’s election in November 2023, Trump posted on social media, “You will turn your country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!”
Milei first met Trump in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in the Washington area. He has openly declared his admiration for Trump and when he saw him, he rushed to him screaming “president!” and gave him a close hug before they posed for pictures.
The Argentine president is known for his eccentric personality and first made a name for himself by shouting against Argentina’s “political caste” on television. The right-wing populist campaigned with a chainsaw as his prop to symbolize his plans to slash public spending and scrap government ministries.
