British technology tycoon Mike Lynch – reportedly one of six tourists missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Italy – founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and made his name as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs through the company. But his roots stem all the way back to Essex. Mr Lynch has been described at points as "the Bill Gates of Britain", for founding the company which became one of the biggest enterprise software firms on the planet.
He seemed to live up to the moniker when he negotiated an 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale of Autonomy to Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard (HP), which generated a more than 800 million US dollar windfall for him. But before this, he was born to a nurse and fireman before moving to live and grow up near Chelmsford in Essex.
At the age of 11, he won a scholarship from Bancroft's School in Woodford, a private school. He excelled here before going to Christ's College in Cambridge to study natural sciences, before getting a PhD in artificial neural networks (machine learning) Read more: Essex business tycoon among four Brits missing after luxury yacht sinks off Sicily Read more: Nigel Farage defends huge GB News salary making him highest-earning MP The sale of Autonomy kicked off a 13-year legal saga for Mr Lynch. It was only in June this year that Mr Lynch was cleared of charges alleging he orchestrated a fraud and conspiracy leading up to the deal, which turned into a costly albatross for HP.
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