Bono, the U2 lead singer of the Irish band, is preparing to enter the “billionaires club”, thanks to the Facebook shares that the owns.
His company, Elevation Partners, which he founded with Fred Anderson, Apple’s former director, paid 210 million dollars to buy shares in Facebook, in 2009, and this investment is now showing its fruit, informs contactmusic.com.
After the Facebook company was valued at 65 billion dollars earlier this week, Facebook shares that Bono holds are worth 975 million dollars.
In addition, the U2 band recently broke an important record, after “360° Tour” became, in late July, the highest grossing tour in history – 736.1 million dollars.
U2 band made up of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion), was founded in 1976, when its members were still adolescents without a thorough knowledge of music. But by the mid ’80s, the band gained international notoriety, most notably for its intense sound and the deep, passionate voice of Bono and The Edge’s guitar. The success enjoyed as live band was even higher than that from albums sold until the 1987 “The Joshua Tree”, their fifth studio, when the band status was raised from “heroes to superstars”, as Rolling Stone magazine said.
The latest world tour group, titled “360° Tour”, was promoting the 12th studio album of U2, “No Line On The Horizon”, released on March 2, 2009. According to experts, this tour was the most expensive in history, but the Irish band’s strategy to increase the capacity stage, with a huge rotating mobile scene, an industry first, had the expected results. Each concert has generated an average revenue of $7 million, with an average of almost 70,000 spectators – a new record in the field.