British Entrepreneur Missing After Yacht Sinks Off Italy

A source familiar with the rescue efforts reported that "British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch has gone missing after a luxury yacht was hit by a severe storm and sank off Palermo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily, on Monday." Lynch, 59, was acquitted of fraud charges related to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett Packard (HP) for $11 billion in 2011, by a jury in San Francisco in June. The sale bolstered Lynch's reputation as the British counterpart to Bill Gates, but it quickly deteriorated after HP wrote down Autonomy's value by $8.8 billion. Lynch stated he was "elated" by his acquittal in the criminal trial in which he testified while defending himself, denying to the jury that he committed any crime and blaming HP for mishandling the integration of the two companies.