Fiscal responsibility versus political imperatives: Rewinding the week that was

“Maverick outsider, an improbable life, and even more improbable death.”

Mike Lynch’s life reads like a story that constantly defied probability – a self-made tech billionaire who built one of Britain’s most successful software companies, fought a decade-long legal battle, and walked free when almost no one expected him to. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, journalist Katie Prescott unpacks that extraordinary arc, from the rise of Autonomy to the $11 billion Hewlett-Packard deal that unravelled into one of the most complex corporate disputes of modern times. Prescott takes us inside the courtroom drama, the competing narratives of fraud and misunderstanding, and the personality of Lynch himself: brilliant, combative, and deeply unconventional. This is not just a story about business or technology, but about ambition, identity, and the fine line between genius and hubris. And then, just as a second act seemed possible, came an ending that stunned even those closest to him. A sudden, almost surreal tragedy that reframed everything that came before it.