Lynch’s body was recovered on Thursday from the wreckage of Monday’s disaster, a senior Italian official said.

Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996 based on his groundbreaking research at Cambridge University and won the acclaim of shareholders, business leaders and politicians when he sold the company to Hewlett-Packard 15 years later for $11 billion.

HP wrote off $8.8 billion in assets, triggering a 12-year legal battle in courtrooms from London to San Francisco.

Known for his immense intelligence, Lynch turned his groundbreaking academic research into a multibillion-pound technology company and became known as Britain’s Bill Gates.

He did not shy away from confronting critics of his company – including Larry Ellison of Oracle at one point – and played a central role in preparing his defense.

He hired the biggest names in Britain’s legal and corporate communications professions and invited a number of journalists into a room full of neatly stacked company documents to brief them on the company’s financial statements.

Even before the advent of advanced artificial intelligence, HP was excited by Autonomy’s ability to search and organize unstructured information for customers – a killer application in a world of unlimited data.

Lynch received about $800 million for his stake in Autonomy.

An allusion to Bayes’ theorem

Autonomy’s software used patented algorithms based on a mathematical formula developed in the 18th century by the Reverend Thomas Bayes. In reference to this formula, Lynch had named his yacht, which sank off Italy, Bayesian.

HP sued Lynch for $5 billion in a civil case in London’s High Court, during which the entrepreneur spent 22 days in the witness box, one of the longest cross-examinations in the United Kingdom.

Lynch then faced extradition to the USA. He was accused of wire fraud and conspiracy, among other things. If convicted, he could have faced decades in prison.

In San Francisco, he testified in his own defense, denied any wrongdoing and told the jury that HP had botched the integration of the acquired company.

“Autonomy has been a hugely successful company,” he said.

As part of the celebration, Lynch invited his supporters to a sailing vacation in southern Italy with his family on his 185-foot yacht. Guests included his lawyer and a Morgan Stanley executive who had testified as a character witness.

The boat was anchored with its sails down when it was caught in a violent storm before dawn on Monday and sank quickly.

His wife survived, but on Thursday their younger daughter was still reported missing. She is the last person reported missing after four more bodies were recovered. The ship’s cook was also found dead hours after the disaster.

BRITISH TECHNOLOGY CHAMPION

Born in 1965 and raised in Chelmsford, near London, Lynch said his parents, a nurse and a firefighter, instilled in him an appreciation for the value of a good education.

He studied physics, mathematics and biochemistry at Cambridge University and then earned his doctorate in signal processing. His dissertation is still one of the most read in the university library, according to local media reports.

He founded Autonomy in 1996 and used part of the proceeds to establish himself as a pioneer in British technology. His venture capital firm Invoke backed Darktrace, a British cybersecurity company currently being sold to US firm Thoma Bravo for $5.32 billion, as well as other technology companies.

“Mike’s ability to identify and solve complex problems was phenomenal, as was his ability to simplify and explain them,” family friend Patrick Jacob said in a statement released by a Lynch family spokesman.

“As a friend, Mike was never dull and always ready for a lively debate on almost any topic, conducted with intelligence and convivial verve. He could be challenging and direct, but I never left him without feeling that my life had been enriched by the experience.”

Lynch, a married father of two daughters, was happy to share his expertise.

He advised the government on science and innovation issues, sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, and was a Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.

After his acquittal, he vowed to fight against the extradition treaty between Britain and the United States, which British critics have long said is too one-sided. In August, he told the BBC that he would not have been acquitted without the money for his defense.

“As a British citizen, you shouldn’t need financial means to protect yourself,” he said.

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