An American businessman who took over Mike Lynch’s Autonomy brand said he received panicked calls from friends and family who feared he may have been aboard the tech boss’s superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily.
Scott Painter confirmed he was not aboard the Bayesian luxury yacht, which authorities say sank shortly before 5 a.m. Monday due to a rare rip current.
The boat was anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village located in the province of Palermo in Italy, when it “suddenly sank”, probably “due to the terrible weather conditions”, according to a statement released by the Municipality of Bagheria.
Painter, chief executive of the largest US electric vehicle subscription company operating under the Autonomy brand, said he was shocked and saddened by the news of Lynch’s passing.
Lynch, one of Britain’s richest men with an estimated fortune of £852m, remains missing, as is his 18-year-old daughter.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, often referred to as the “British Bill Gates,” was on vacation with his family when tragedy struck and a freak waterspout sank his luxury boat.
A photo provided on August 19, 2024 by the Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesiano’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
His wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued and is recovering from her injuries.
The Bayesian was carrying 10 crew members: Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, as well as nine other guests.
“We’re praying for good news,” Painter told DailyMail.com exclusively. “Mike is a legend and the loss of him and his daughter would be truly tragic.”
The ship was spotted on the seabed 160 feet below the Sicilian coast.
Six of the passengers, including four British citizens and two unnamed Americans, remain missing, leading some to believe that Painter was also on the unfortunate traveller.
The body of the ship’s chef, Canadian Ricardo Thomas, was found floating next to the ship this morning.
British mother Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old baby named Sofia were reported to be among those rescued by a nearby sailing boat.
Painter said that although he had never been aboard the Bayesian luxury yacht, he was familiar with the vessel and thought it “had an unusually large mast for a sloop.”
“The mast was every sailor’s ultimate bragging right,” Painter told DailyMail.com. “That mast must have been over 240 feet tall, making it either the tallest or second tallest in the world.”
He added: “That could certainly contribute to the yacht capsizing, as it would destabilise the boat. And if it were to list too much, it could capsize completely.”
Entrepreneur Scott Painter, who acquired Mike Lynch’s former enterprise software company Autonomy, said family and friends were frantically trying to contact him out of fear he may have been one of 15 passengers aboard the superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily.
The Bayesian was carrying ten crew members, Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, as well as nine other guests.
Lynch, 59, often referred to as “the British Bill Gates”, sold his British enterprise software company Autonomy to US technology giant Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.
But the deal fell apart when Lynch was accused of manipulating the books to complete the sale. Lynch was fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman, leading to a decade-long legal battle.
British firm Micro Focus took over some of HP’s remaining assets following its purchase of Autonomy in 2011.
Painter, who founded auto retailer TrueCar, and entrepreneur Georg Bauer acquired the Autonomy brand and its library of intellectual property from education firm Micro Focus in 2021.
Painter developed a fully electric vehicle subscription company and kept the name Autonomy.
He has since developed a startup called Autonomy Data Services that provides a software platform where automakers can operate their own subscription services for electric, gasoline, new or even used cars, according to TechCrunch.com.
Georg Bauer, president and CEO of Autonomy, was not on board the ill-fated superyacht.
When news of Lynch’s boat sinking in Sicily made international headlines, Painter said his friends and family were concerned he might have been one of the luxury yacht’s passengers.
Painter confirmed that Bauer, who is president and director of Autonomy, was also not on the Bayesian luxury yacht.
“Mr Bauer is safe in Munich and had nothing to do with the matter,” Painter told DailyMail.com. “It’s quite a crazy story. That ship was exceptional. It doesn’t make much sense.”
Lynch, his family and friends were enjoying their trip to the coast of Italy just two months after he was acquitted of fraud and conspiracy charges related to the multi-million dollar HP deal.
The tech giant was extradited from the UK to face criminal charges in a federal court in San Francisco in March.
Prosecutors alleged he carried out a massive fraud against HP in connection with its 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, a software company Lynch founded in 1996 and later oversaw as chief executive in Britain.
Tech mogul and married father of two Mr Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela, who was rescued on Monday.
Divers are searching the sea for the missing at the site where the superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19.
Prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses during Lynch’s criminal trial in an attempt to prove allegations that he manipulated accounts and defrauded HP of billions of dollars.
Lynch denied the allegations and said he was being made a scapegoat for HP, a point he reiterated when he took the stand during the 11-week criminal trial.
Lynch faced up to 25 years in federal prison if convicted, but a jury acquitted the tech mogul on June 6 of all 15 felony charges.
The father-of-two returned to the UK shortly after the trial and said he was grateful to have a “second life”.
In her first newspaper interview, she told the Times: “I had to say goodbye to everything and everyone, because I didn’t know if I would ever come back.”
He added: “If this had gone wrong, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in every sense.”
“It’s strange, but you have a second life now. The question is: what do you want to do with it?”