"Bayesian" tragedy off Sicily Luxury yacht was considered unsinkable - now the widow is facing financial ruin
The sinking of the Bayesian superyacht in 2024 shocked the public. Now the widow of the deceased billionaire Mike Lynch is facing a legal battle for nothing less than a billion euros.
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- When the luxury yacht "Bayesian" sank off Sicily in the summer of 2024, seven people died, including tech billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter, while his wife survived.
- A London court ordered Lynch's estate to pay around one billion euros in damages to Hewlett-Packard due to a long-running legal dispute over the sale of Autonomy.
- The large sum, including interest, threatens the widow with financial ruin, while the exact cause of the yacht accident continues to be investigated.
The wife of tech billionaire Mike Lynch, Angela Bacares, has suffered a heavy blow. In the summer of 2024, she survived the accident on the superyacht "Bayesian", which sank off the coast of Sicily during a storm. Seven people lost their lives - including her husband Mike Lynch (59) and their youngest daughter.
Now she is facing legal trouble. The reason? Mike Lynch's widow will have to dig deep into her pockets: on Tuesday, a London court ordered the estate of her late husband to pay the US company Hewlett-Packard the equivalent of around one billion euros in damages. This was reported by the British newspaper "The Times".
Interest is added to the compensation payments
Mike Lynch, also known as "England's Bill Gates", sold his software company Autonomy to the US group Hewlett-Packard for 11.7 billion dollars in 2011. However, the deal had legal repercussions: HP accused Lynch of artificially inflating the company's value - and filed a lawsuit in 2015. The case occupied the courts for over a decade.
Last July, Lynch's estate in London was ordered to pay damages of 700 million pounds (around 830 million euros). Because the sale took place 15 years ago, Hewlett-Packard demanded additional interest.
Now the court has added to this: According to the Times, around 200 million euros in interest will be added to the 852 million - a total of around one billion euros. The estate is therefore in danger of being "wiped out".
A judgment that Mike Lynch did not live to see: The billionaire died in August 2024 together with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Their 56-metre superyacht "Bayesian" sank off Sicily during a storm. Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, however, survived the accident.
According to initial findings, the yacht was caught by a tidal wave during the night, capsized within a few minutes and sank. However, the exact cause remains unclear. A preliminary report from May 2025 assumes that extreme gusts of wind caused the ship to lose its balance. Further investigations were announced after the salvage in June 2025.
