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  1. Don't know if it's been discussed, but thanks to Elevation Partners, Bono will do pretty well after Facebook's public offering today...

    http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/facebook_stock_makes_bono_world_tVfB3JMf61vROS0DDTtO1O

    Updated: Fri., May. 18, 2012, 11:05 AM
    Facebook stock makes Bono world's richest musician
    Last Updated: 11:05 AM, May 18, 2012
    Posted: 10:09 AM, May 18, 2012

    Bono will become the richest musician in the world today, reports say, stealing the title from Paul McCartney.

    According to the British music magazine NME, with the initial public offering of Facebook stock today, Bono will substantially boost his wealth. The U2 front man was wise enough to buy into the social media network in 2009, purchasing 2.3 percent of the shares in Facebook through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners. While Bono's firm bought the shares for $90 million three years ago, the shares are now valued at $1.5 billion.

    Meanwhile, the former holder of the title of world's richest musician -- former Beatle Paul McCartney -- is worth just over $1 billion.

    But Bono's reported new wealth doesn't mean that the singer is headed toward retirement. NME also reports that U2 is back in the studio, working with several new creative collaborators.

    "The band [is] back in the studio getting a feel for new material after the last album 'No Line On The Horizon'. Will.i.am had a credit on that and they are looking to explore that direction further," a source told the magazine. "They have been working with Danger Mouse and RedOne."

    With its initial price set at $38 a share, trading of Facebook stock is expected to begin at 11 a.m. today.
  2. What a boss!
  3. Clever BONO!
  4. another Bono topic
  10. I stand corrected. I did think it was unrealistic to assess his share of Elevation equity (and therefore EP's FB stock) at 100%...
  11. I was under the impression he was one of three major partners in Elevation and that their 90Mio investment wasn't their first in Facebook. That would put Bono's investement into F-book at 25mio+ at a time when they had only raised 1 B$, perhaps 2 B$, making Bono's share between 1.25% to 2.5%.

    If we put F-book's market cap at 10B$ (low estimate) Bono's share is worth 150-250mio$. But I've seen claims for 100B$ (I know pretty ridiculous), that would put Bono at 1.25-2.5B$.

    Also keep in mind that Elevation controls at least another 150-250mio$ in other investments. F-book isn't their sole investment, it's part of a much larger portfolio. All of these numbers are market worth, not real money and under the terms of F-book's IPO major partners such as Elevation aren't allowed to cash in, yet.

    The source of all this wealth is U2's deal with Island (renegotiated after JT) which gave them a large 25-50mio share in Island, just before Island records was bought by Polygram (for 400mio$). The band netted at least 150mio in this, and that was before signing a new deal with Polygram and getting a much larger share of sales revenue than artist normally get.
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