The Rise and Fall of a Tech Titan - Katie Prescott

Mike Lynch was a working-class kid from East London who built one of Britain's greatest tech companies, and then watched it all collapse in a fraud scandal that stretched across two continents, two courtrooms, and ultimately, cost him his life. Katie Prescott joins me on Open Book to tell the story of a man who was flawed, brilliant, damaged, and damaging — and what his rise and fall says about the way we worship billionaires and the culture we've built around them. Katie Prescott is the technology business editor at The Times and a weekly columnist for the newspaper’s award-winning business section. A regular on Times Radio and The Times’ daily podcast The Story, she is a familiar voice to millions of listeners after a decade reporting for the BBC and presenting the business news on Radio 4’s Today. She is the current host of The Times Tech Podcast, and was the winner of ‘Tech Commentator of the Year’ at the UK Tech Awards. Get a copy of her wonderful new book "The Curious Case of Mike Lynch: The Improbable Life & Death of a Tech Billionaire" here: https://amzn.to/3SsgoNy Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewron... Timestamps 0:00 Katie Prescott Introduction 2:31 How Mike Lynch rode the wave of the dot-com era 5:25 The origins of Mike Lynch’s cruelness as a method of success 7:50 The trauma of dealing with Mike Lynch 10:14 What fraud at Autonomy says about the justice system 13:36 Mike Lynch’s clash with Meg Whitman 18:24 Diplomacy in the UK vs the US 19:11 Can elites fail? 22:09 What lesson from Mike Lynch's lesson should everyone learn? 23:22 Was Mike Lynch a happy guy? 24:10 Five Words