By Peter Flanagan


Wednesday August 17 2011

IT would be hard to believe for most of his fans, but Bono may soon be making more money as a suited Wall Street investor than as an international rock star.

The singer, who was branded "the worst investor in America" by an influential financial blog only last year, seems to be having the last laugh now after an investment company he fronts is sitting on a share in Facebook which has quadrupled in value in less than two years.

In November 2009 Elevation Partners -- a US investment firm in which Bono is a partner -- paid $210m (€145m) for a stake in the social networking giant. After another investor sold its stake in the company yesterday, Elevation Partners' stake is now valued at close to $1bn -- or $975m (€676m) to be precise.

That 400pc increase is a big turnaround for Bono, who was deemed "the worst investor in America" by the '24/7 Wall Street' last year.

He earned that title after a host of Elevation investments -- dubbed "arguably the worst-run institutional fund of any size in the United States" -- turned sour.

The $1.9bn (€1.3bn) fund was founded in 2004 by Bono and top fund manager Roger MacNamee among others to invest in media, music and gaming deals. It pumped around $480m into the smartphone maker Palm -- once a leader in the smartphone market -- in 2007 only months before Apple's iPhone almost wiped the company out.

Ultimately, Bono's firm broke even on its Palm investment when the computer giant Hewlett-Packard bought the company at a bargain basement price. The conditions of Elevation's investment meant it would be reimbursed in full if Palm was sold.

In 2006 Bono's fund invested some $300m (€208m) in the US publishing company Forbes. The family-owned company, best known for the 'Forbes' business magazine, was valued at around $750m (€520m) at the time but the magazine sector has seen its value plummet since then, and the company is now estimated as being worth around $100m (€69m).

More recently, U2 are believed to have backed the Broadway musical "Spiderman: Turn off the Dark" to the tune of $65m (€45m) and counting, but there seems little hope of them getting their money back. The show has been beset by problems, including injured crew, a delayed opening, and negative reviews.

The Facebook investment though, may be a sign of a change in fortune for the fund. Elevation was reported to have put $100m into Pandora, a heavily hyped online music service which went public last month but it is not clear if it ultimately invested in the company.

Still, the fund looks well placed to invest more in the trendy media and technology space, which is riding a wave of growth at the moment. That has prompted fears of another technology bubble, similar to what happened at the turn of the century when a host of internet companies listed on the stock market only to see their value plummet after a short time, creating massive losses for investors.

In any case, even if the investment side of things doesn't work out for Bono, he will always have the music to go back to, and that should leave him with a tidy little sum for retirement.

U2's '360' Tour, which ended after two years earlier this year, was the highest grossing tour of all time. Surpassing The Rolling Stones 'Bigger Bang' tour. It is believed to have netted the band $195m (€135m), and the fact that much of the band's business is domiciled in Holland for tax purposes means profits from record sales will only get bigger. The band collectively are valued at more than €490m.

- Peter Flanagan

Irish Independent

Hopefully he won't feel the need to sing anymore!

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Silver Dagger
Hopefully he won't feel the need to sing anymore!

Why, He is a fantastic singer

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U2Stonesfan

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Silver Dagger
Hopefully he won't feel the need to sing anymore!

Why, He is a fantastic singer

And a great showman
I still watch the Sydney 1993 show with great respect for the man's theatrics.

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U2Stonesfan

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Silver Dagger
Hopefully he won't feel the need to sing anymore!

Why, He is a fantastic singer

If he just sang, it wouldn't be so bad. His political ranting gets in the way of the music.

He´s just a @#$%& capitalist. That´s all.

What investments have Jagger, and the Stones made? I've read about Jagger being such a shrewd businessman.

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TooTough
He´s just a @#$%& capitalist. That´s all.

CapitalismFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
"Liberal market economy" redirects here. For the ideology behind this economic system, see Economic liberalism.
"Free Enterprise" redirects here. For the 1999 film, see Free Enterprise (film).
For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation).
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Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets.[1] Income in a capitalist system takes at least two forms, profit on the one hand and wages on the other. There is also a tradition that treats rent, income from the control of natural resources, as a third phenomenon distinct from either of those. In any case, profit is what is received, by virtue of control of the tools of production, by those who provide the capital. Often profits are used to expand an enterprise, thus creating more jobs and wealth. Wages are received by those who provide a service to the enterprise, also known as workers, but do not have an ownership stake in it, and are therefore compensated irrespective of whether the enterprise makes a profit or a loss. In the case of profitable enterprise, profits are therefore not translated to workers except at the discretion of the owners, who may or may not receive increased compensation, whereas losses are not translated to workers except at similar discretion manifested by decreased compensation.

There is no consensus on the precise definition of capitalism, nor on how the term should be used as a historical category.[2] There is, however, little controversy that private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit in a market, and prices and wages are elements of capitalism.[3] The designation is applied to a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.[4] Some define capitalism as a system in which all the means of production are privately owned, and some define it more loosely as one in which merely "most" are in private hands — while others refer to the latter as a mixed economy biased toward capitalism. More fundamentally, others define capitalism as a system in which production is carried out to generate profit and is governed by the laws of capital accumulation; regardless of the legal ownership titles. Private ownership in capitalism implies the right to control property, including the determination of how it is used, who uses it, whether to sell or rent it, and the right to the revenue generated by the property.[5]

Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree that government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), and on property rights.[6][7] Most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, class and emphasize capitalism as a unique historical formation.[8] There is general agreement that capitalism encourages economic growth.[9] The extent to which different markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and policy, and many states have what are termed mixed economies.[8]

Capitalism, as a deliberate economic system, developed incrementally from the 16th century in Europe,[10] although proto-capitalist organizations existed in the ancient world, and early aspects of merchant capitalism flourished during the Late Middle Ages.[11][12][13] Capitalism became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism.[13] Capitalism gradually spread throughout Europe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main means of industrialization throughout much of the world.[4] Today the capitalist system is the world's dominant economic model


So what are you talking about?

Maybe greedy hypocrite works better.

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MKjan
Maybe greedy hypocrite works better.

Nope,maybe in your negative opinion.