Mike Lynch was a maverick outsider in the British business world. From humble beginnings
Lynch rose to become one of the UK's richest men selling his home-grown enterprise software
company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for over £11bn in 2011. The sale triggered one of the
biggest fraud cases in Silicon Valley history as HP accused him of cooking the company's
books. Lynch was sent to the US in handcuffs his reputation in tatters - but was acquitted by
a US jury and returned home a free man. Tragically his second chance at life was snatched
away even as he was celebrating his freedom. In a freak accident his yacht sunk off the coast
of northern Sicily in August 2024 taking the lives of Lynch his daughter and five others.
Shockingly the co-defendant in the US trial Autonomy accountant Stephen Chamberlain was
killed hours before Lynch hit by a car in Cambridge. It was almost thirteen years to the day
since the deal between HP and Autonomy was signed. Drawing on extensive research and exclusive
access to key sources The Curious Case of Mike Lynch follows the billionaire's dramatic rise
and fall and finally his untimely and tragic death. It's a thrilling story of money power
and deception taking readers into a high-stakes world of corporate subterfuge and rivalries
zigzagging through the hallowed confines of Cambridge across the cut-throat streets of the City
of London to Silicon Valley. In this pacy no-holds barred investigation into one of the most
fascinating men in the history of British business award-winning Times journalist Katie
Prescott reflects on Lynch's legacy outlining lessons from a truly unique life which serve as
both a warning and inspiration for us all.
