It has now been confirmed that Mike Lynch, one of the most prominent and controversial figures in the U.K. tech scene, died in the sinking of his superyacht off Sicily on Monday. At least five others also died when the vessel capsized in a violent storm; Lynch’s teenage daughter Hannah remains missing.
I encourage you to read my colleague Ryan Hogg’s obituary of Lynch, who I was writing about just a couple weeks ago in the context of his legal travails. Following a lengthy extradition drama, Lynch, 59, was acquitted in June of criminal fraud charges relating to the sale of his data software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. Indeed, his fateful trip with family, friends and lawyers was reportedly a celebration of that victory.
Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer, who had chaired Autonomy’s audit committee during the HP sale, and who testified in Lynch’s defense, also died in the sinking of the Bayesian. In a grotesque coincidence, Lynch’s also-acquitted codefendant in the U.S. trial, former Autonomy finance VP Stephen Chamberlain, was fatally struck by a car while jogging in England on Saturday.
Although he was acquitted in the U.S., a U.K. civil case over Autonomy’s misrepresentation of its financials to HP resulted in a ruling that Lynch had known what was going on. As a result, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (which has been handling the case since it was spun out of HP in 2015) had been hoping to recoup billions of dollars from Lynch and former Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain, who received a five-year sentence in the U.S. over the affair.
“We’re saddened by this tragic event and our thoughts are with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives,” said an HPE spokesman, while declining to comment on the future of the legal proceedings.
Friends say Lynch had been at the “beginning of a new life” following his U.S. acquittal, and many tributes followed the confirmation of his passing.
“The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man,” said Autonomy cofounder David Tabizel.
“Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalyzed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the U.K.,” said John Browne, the former BP CEO and the chair of the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research center for which Lynch once helped to raise funds. “His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. I send my condolences to those close to him. We have lost a human being of great ability.”
David Yelland, the former editor of The Sun and Lynch’s public relations advisor, said Lynch was “failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most—as he looked for help in the unjust U.S. demand that he be extradited—and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”
“I was in touch with Mike just before he sailed,” Yelland wrote on X. “He wasn’t a mere dreamer of dreams, he was a creator of dreams not just for himself but for all those that knew him, worked with him or invested with him.”
Lynch was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the board of which said it was “deeply saddened” to hear of his death. A spokesperson from industry body TechUK told the Evening Standard that Lynch had been “a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the U.K. technology sector.”
More news below. And do read my colleague Eleanor Pringle’s piece on X’s true owners, whose identities have just been revealed in the context of a lawsuit by former employees. Bill Ackman is no surprise, but the same can’t be said for Diddy.
David Meyer
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NEWSWORTHY
Walmart sells JD.com stake. Walmart has sold its entire $3.7 billion stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com and says it will focus on its own Chinese operations now. As Reuters reports, the move may have something to do with how the ultra-competitive nature of Chinese e-commerce squeezes profit margins. Walmart has in recent years been pulling out of a few international markets where it can’t turn a decent profit.
Head-to-head spectacle. The second half of next month will see the unveiling of not one but two big plays in the augmented reality glasses space, The Verge reports. Snap will apparently show off the fifth generation of its Spectacles on Sept. 17, with Mark Zuckerberg revealing Meta’s entry into the AR specs business the following week. Meta’s effort is code-named Orion.
Google targeting teens. Not long after the Financial Times reported that Google broke its own rules by letting Meta target teens with its YouTube ads, Adweek reports that this was no one-off. Citing three ad buyers, plus written documentation, the publication says Google’s salespeople have been advising ad buyers on how to reach teenagers despite the fact that Google doesn’t allow targeting that age group. The key, it seems, is to target the cohort of “unknown” users, about whom Google doesn’t know age or other details, as teens are probably included in the group. Google says it will remind its reps not to help agencies and advertisers skirt the company’s rules.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
500,000
—The estimated number of trees felled to make space for Tesla’s gigafactory outside Berlin. That’s according to environmental intelligence company Kayrros; many environmental campaigners oppose the plant.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Russian users get locked out of Telegram and WhatsApp as Moscow intensifies internet censorship, by AFP
Another Tesla veteran resigned, writing it was ‘definitely not for the faint of heart’, by Amanda Gerut
Tech CEO swears off Silicon Valley’s latest craze: ‘I really f—– hate generative AI’, by Chloe Berger
Andreessen Horowitz leads $80 million bet on startup seeking to tame AI with copyright, by Jeff John Roberts
Taxpayers and tech companies will help fund journalism and AI research in landmark California deal, by the Associated Press
BEFORE YOU GO
Plans laid for new streamer. There’s reportedly going to be a new streaming service in town, coming from…Chick-fil-A? According to Deadline, the fast-food company has been talking to big production companies about the creation of original, family-friendly content, with a tilt towards reality TV. The publication notes that Chick-fil-A has made content for its own website before, but this would be something else—and it could be a boon for the ailing reality TV sector.