Mike Lynch's Net Worth Dipped Before His Tragic Death
Mike Lynch had just won a legal battle over the sale of Autonomy.
Published Aug. 23 2024, 5:33 p.m. ET
The sinking of the Bayesian super yacht owned by Mike Lynch has made headlines for the harrowing experience. Those on the boat, like Charlotte Golunski, have shared details about their experience as the super yacht began to sink. The experience was meant to be a celebration of Mike's legal win, having been cleared of fraud, but unfortunately, the thunderstorm that capsized his ship took his life.
On Aug. 20, it was confirmed that Mike was among the dead in the tragic event, further souring the intended celebration. Before his passing, Mike's net worth had taken a pretty serious hit following the various legal fees he had to deal with. What was his net worth?
What was Mike Lynch's net worth?
Throughout his long career as a businessman, Mike was occasionally referred to as the "British Bill Gates" -- but unfortunately his net worth was not nearly as staple as the comparable tech legacy.
According to Express, Mike was reportedly worth around £500 million (or $660 million in USD) when he passed away. But this reported wealth was significantly less than he'd had in prior years.
Mike Lynch
Technology entrepreneur
Net worth: $660 Million
Mike Lynch was known as the "British Bill Gates," given his success in tech entrepreneurship. He was the co-founder of Autonomy, Invoke Capital, and Darktrace.
Birth date: June 16, 1965
Birth place: Ilford, London, England
Spouse: Angela Bacares
Education: University of Cambridge (MA, PhD)
According to the outlet, Mike was worth around £852 million (around $1.1 billion USD) just one year prior, putting him and his wife within the top 200 richest people in the world. Much of this wealth was attributed to his work in the technology space, specifically his sale of the company Autonomy to HP. In 2011, he sold his company for $11.7 billion -- a price that was later accused of being an artificial inflation, resulting in Mike's decade-long legal battle.
Despite the speculation around his sale to HP, Mike continued to rake in the wealth, briefly appearing on Forbes's list of billionaires in 2014 and 2015. His net worth was further aided by his work with Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm supporting tech startups across the U.K. The entrepreneur founded the company in 2012 after the sale of Autonomy.
Mike dropped off the billionaire list in 2016 and was unable to secure a place on it again, despite his continued financial success.
Mike Lynch's legal battle extended for more than a decade.
Just one year after the sale of Autonomy, HP reported that the tech company was actually worth $8.8 billion less than it'd purchased it for, resulting in a long-running legal battle between Mike and the computer company. HP sued Mike for $5 billion in damages, per CNBC, claiming that he had inflated the company's sales.
The legal battle ran from 2012 to 2024, marking 12 years of legal fees and court dates for the tech entrepreneur. He was extradited to the U.S. from the U.K. in 2023 to stand trial for the charges, but in 2024, he was ultimately acquitted of all fraud charges.
″If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense,” he'd told The Times just weeks before the super yacht incident.
