Who is missing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and what is his net worth?

Mike Lynch, among those feared dead off the coast of Sicily, owes his fortune to a software firm he sold for $11 billion – but there’s a lot more to the story.

British billionaire Mike Lynch, who is among those feared dead off the coast of Sicily, is a 59-year-old tech entrepreneur.

His wife, Angela Bacares, was among the 15 people rescued, but his daughter Hannah is among the six missing, after a superyacht sank in a sudden storm.

Mr Lynch – once dubbed the British “Bill Gates” – was only acquitted weeks ago in the US after facing massive fraud charges and was believed to be with colleagues on board the luxury vessel moored off the coast of Porticello, east of Palermo.

Originally from Suffolk in east England, Mr Lynch was a former adviser to two British prime ministers and once a star entrepreneur who seemed to represent a rare tech British success story.

The businessman has a fortune of £500 million ($965 million) according to the latest Sunday Times “Rich List”, and owes his fame to his software firm Autonomy which he sold to Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011.

He founded the company in 1996 in Cambridge, where he earned his doctorate, and turned it into a leading British tech firm.

But just one year after the mega-deal, HP reported a writedown of $US8.8 billion ($13 billion) – including more than $US5 billion ($7.4 billion) it attributed to inflated data from Autonomy – plunging Mr Lynch into a decade-long fraud scandal.

Prosecutors accused him of taking part in a massive scheme as Autonomy’s chief executive to deceive HP by pumping up his company’s value before its sale.

Mr Lynch was extradited from Britain to the US in 2023 to stand trial, facing two decades in jail if convicted of the 17 charges and spending the year in house arrest.

But in June he was acquitted on all charges.

“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Mr Lynch said after the verdict was handed down in a San Francisco court.

Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are feared dead. Picture: Yui Mok/PA/AAP

Mr Lynch – who made around $US 815 million ($1.2 billion) from the Autonomy sale – always denied the fraud charges, accusing HP of making him a scapegoat for its own failings.

After returning to the UK, Lynch told The Times newspaper in July he had “various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive” in an American prison.

“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?.” he told the publication after his acquittal.

Father of two daughters aged 18 and 21, and a dog lover – owning two dachshunds and four sheepdogs – Mr Lynch has a home in the affluent London district of Chelsea, according to the newspaper, as well as owning a farm in Suffolk.

Mike Lynch and wife Angela Bacares, who was rescued.

Despite the acquittal, the fraud case is not closed.

In 2022, London’s High Court ruled in a civil fraud case that HP had been duped and had overpaid for Autonomy.

The court has yet to rule on the billions of dollars in damages claimed by the American group.

Also sued by HP, Autonomy’s former CFO Sushovan Hussain was found guilty of fraud in 2018 by a US jury, with Hussain jailed for five years.

The shadow of Mr Lynch’s legal troubles has long weighed on the share prices of another British company – the cybersecurity and artificial intelligence group Darktrace of which he is a founding investor.

But in a reversal of fortune, Darktrace accepted a $US5.3 billion ($7.9 billion) takeover offer from US private equity firm Thoma Bravo in April, sending its share price soaring.

A spokeswoman for Mr Lynch declined to comment when contacted by AFP.