Autonomy To Float On Nasdaq; Lynch Snubs London Market

Mike Lynch, Britain’s first Internet billionaire, is planning to take his company Autonomy on to the Nasdaq in a bid to raise a further £100 million ($153 million).

Autonomy is already listed on Easdaq, the Brussels-based hi-tech index whose quarterly reporting requirements model those of its U.S. counterpart.

Mr Lynch, 34, has never made any secret of his disillusionment with Britain’s City institutions which, when Autonomy’s parent company Neurodynamics was first mooted, abjectly failed to help with any funding.

Monday, just a few years on from its Easdaq listing, Autonomy is Britain’s biggest Internet success story, worth around £4.7 billion ($7.19 billion). Mr Lynch, meanwhile, is reputed to be worth £682 million ($1.04 billion) – making him the 32nd richest man in Britain.Only last week Mr Lynch unveiled plans for a third company, NCorp, whose software will use the same pattern recognition techniques to help people buy goods over the Internet more easily.

In the meantime the former Cambridge maths lecturer is said to be close towards finalising plans for Autonomy’s Nasdaq debut where the company will have easier access to key U.S investors.

When earlier this month Autonomy posted its full-year results, it revealed sales had risen 212 percent to £16.5 million ($25.2 million). The company’s shares shot up 52 percent on the day, underlining investor confidence.