U2’s Bono is official the richest entertainer on the planet after the Facebook float made him a billionaire today.
Bono and U2. image by Ros O'Gorman
The historic Facebook float started a roller coaster of a day for the Facebook stock with finance experts calling the opening a disappointment when it closed just 0.61% up on the start but throughout the day the $38 initial stock opened at $42.05 and reached $45.00 before falling to $38.23.
Regardless, after 580,467,106 shares traded with a closing value of around $18 billion Facebook was valued at $104.63 billion.
Bono’s investment company Elevator Partners had a 1.08% stake in Facebook valuing the investment at over $1 billion. The company invested $90 million into Facebook through a private placement in 2009.
Bono is a founding partner of Elevator Partners. The investment company started in 2004 with Bono and Roger McNamee and Marc Bodnick from Silver Lake Partners with Fred Anderson from Apple and John Riccitiello from Electronic Arts.
The company was named after the U2 song ‘Elevation’.
Bono was reported to have been worth around $900 million before the float and now easily becomes a rock and roll billionaire.
Other music industry billionaires include Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, Len Blavatnik, owner of Warner Music, Philip Anschutz, owner of AEG, Sean Parker, inventor of Napster, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, theatre producer, Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber, composer and Sir Paul McCartney.
On the way to billionaire status is Diddy, worth around $500 million and Jay-Z, worth around $450 million.
