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TencentTechnology News, August 20, according to foreign media reports, a luxury yacht sank in the waters near Sicily, Italy, in the early hours of Monday morning. The 56-meter-long yacht named "Bayesian" capsized after encountering a storm, resulting in the disappearance of six people including British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter.

The yacht was carrying a total of 22 tourists and crew members from the UK, the US and Canada, of whom 15 have been successfully rescued, including a one-year-old British girl. According to reports, the accident occurred at about 5 a.m. on Monday. The yacht lost control, the anchor chain broke, the mast was damaged, and eventually sank near the coast of Porticello Village near Palermo, Sicily.

Divers have found some wreckage at a depth of 50 meters underwater and search and rescue operations are currently in full swing to locate the missing persons.

Salvatore Cocina, director general of the Sicily Civil Protection Agency, confirmed that the missing persons included Lynch, his daughter Hannah Lynch and the yacht chef. He stressed that the search and rescue teams and rescue diving teams will continue the search all night. At the same time, a male body was found near the wreckage at the accident site, but his nationality has yet to be confirmed.

Among the 15 lucky people who escaped was 35-year-old mother Charlotte Golunski, who held her one-year-old daughter tightly in the sea until rescue arrived. The baby is currently in stable health, and Golunski received necessary medical treatment, including suturing her wounds. Golunski also revealed that she was on the yacht with her husband and a group of colleagues from a London company. Fortunately, her husband was also safe.

A nearby Dutch ship responded quickly, rescued several survivors from the waves and cared for them until emergency services arrived. Captain Karsten Borner recalled that after the storm subsided, they were shocked to find that the yacht behind them had disappeared. Then, the crew followed a red flare to the scene and successfully found a life raft carrying 15 survivors, three of whom were seriously injured.

At the same time, fishermen who witnessed the incident mentioned that other people were safely rescued by rubber boats sent by other yachts. A local trawler captain also confirmed the sight of floating debris at sea, including cushions scattered from the deck.

The on-site video recorded the tense and orderly rescue operation, with helicopters closely monitoring the coast guard ship and divers wearing eye-catching orange equipment diving into the deep sea to carry out search and rescue missions. The Italian Coast Guard reported that eight of the rescued people had been sent to the hospital for further treatment.

The western half of the Mediterranean has been hit by severe storms since last week. From Sunday night to Monday morning, a series of extreme weather systems swept across the northern coast of Sicily.

Meteorologist Matt Taylor explained: "A waterspout is a tornado phenomenon unique to water. It forms in severe storms or in cumulonimbus or thunderstorm clouds. The interaction between the turbulent airflow and the winds in different directions around the cloud causes the cloud base to rotate and form a nozzle. Although this phenomenon is similar to a tornado and carries strong winds, the difference is that it rolls up water mist instead of dust and debris on land, and eventually forms a spectacular rotating water column."

Who is Mike Lynch?

Lynch is known as the "British Bill Gates" and is the co-founder of software giant Autonomy. The company has taken a unique approach to industry innovation by using Bayesian mathematics, which originated from the 18th century statistician Thomas Bayes. Lynch is therefore known as one of the few outstanding leaders in the UK who has successfully built a world-class software company from scratch.

At its peak, Autonomy was listed in the FTSE 100 Index and ranked among the second most valuable companies in Europe. With its powerful data processing capabilities, it provided accurate data insight services to many intelligence agencies, financial institutions, law firms and other clients. Lynch himself also won wide acclaim from academia and scientists, and was invited to provide advice on the British government's technology and innovation strategy.

In 2011, Autonomy was acquired by HP for $11 billion, one of the largest technology deals in the UK at the time. Since then, Lynch has become a well-known technology investor in the UK, and his lawyer recently revealed that his total assets are valued at about $450 million.

Although Autonomy was once glorious, it quickly declined after the sale, becoming a major setback in HP's history. Its value was significantly reduced to only $1.2 billion within a year. In addition, this merger and acquisition transaction has become one of the most controversial cases in Silicon Valley history. The CEO of HP who approved the transaction resigned within a year, and Lynch also left the company in 2012.

Later that year, HP claimed it had overpaid for the acquisition and had been defrauded, and prosecutors charged Lynch and Autonomy's former chief financial officer, Stephen Chamberlain, with inflating Autonomy's performance in the run-up to the HP acquisition to seal the deal.

However, in June this year, a San Francisco court judge ruled that Lynch was not guilty of a total of fifteen charges, including one count of conspiracy and fourteen counts of wire fraud.

Lynch has been running Invoke Capital in recent years, a venture capital firm focused on European technology. One of its investments is a company called Darktrace, which usesAIto detect cyberattacks. The company went public in 2021 and is currently valued at over $4 billion.

Celebrating victory turns into sorrow?

The yacht cruise in southern Italy was intended to celebrate Lynch’s recent court victory, according to relatives of the survivors and people familiar with the matter. He invited guests from law firm Clifford Chance and his venture capital firm Invoke Capital.

Among the survivors was lawyer Ayla Ronald, who had helped defend Lynch in his fraud case in the U.S. Crew member Lin Ronald also confirmed that the trip was to celebrate the victory.

According to public information, the registered owner of the Bayesian yacht is Revtom Ltd., and Lynch's wife Angela Bacares is the only legal owner of Revtom registered in the Isle of Man. The yacht is managed by the well-known London brokerage firm Camper & Nicholsons. According to YachtCharterFleet, this luxury yacht was built by the Italian Perini Shipyard in 2008 and is designed to accommodate up to 12 guests and 10 crew members. The market value is approximately US$35 million.

The Bayes is known for its 75-meter mast, one of the tallest aluminum masts in the world. The yacht includes four double cabins, a triple cabin and the master suite, as well as crew accommodation. Listings on online rental sites show that the Bayes can be rented for up to $215,000 per week.

On the same day that the yacht sank, the lawyer for Stephen Chamberlain, a co-defendant in the Lynch fraud case, confirmed that Chamberlain died after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire last Saturday. (Compiled by Jinlu)