Beware Tech Tycoons with Piranha Tanks - with Katie Prescott

Mike Lynch was often lauded as Britain's answer to Bill Gates. Born into a working-class family, Lynch's incredible intellect and passion for computers led him to become a billionaire tech entrepreneur. But behind the scenes, Lynch was a bully who couldn't bear criticism and was prone to creative accounting. When computer giant Hewlett Packard bought his company, Autonomy, it triggered one of the biggest fraud scandals in Silicon Valley history. Tim talks to Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor at The Times and author of the book The Curious Case of Mike Lynch , about the lessons we can take from a story no one could have predicted . For a list of sources see timharford.com

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Beware Tech Tycoons with Piranha Tanks - with Katie Prescott is an episode from Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford by Pushkin Industries.

This episode is 40:42 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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