Mike Lynch, the Autonomy founder finally cleared of fraud after more than decade

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British technology tycoon Mike Lynch – reportedly one of six tourists missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Italy – founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and made his name as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs through the company.

He has been described at points as the Bill Gates of Britain, for founding the company which became one of the biggest enterprise software firms on the planet.

He seemed to live up to the moniker when he negotiated an 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale of Autonomy to Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard (HP), which generated a more than 800 million US dollar windfall for him.

But the sale also kicked off a 13-year legal saga. It was only in…