Bono Is The Richest Rock Star...Not Quite
By: Bill McAllister
It is widely believed that former lead singer of Wings, Paul McCartney is the richest musician in the world. He was supposedly in some other band as well and his fortune is estimated to be just over $1 billion. Well, move over Sir Paul, U2 lead singer Bono now holds the title of 'The World's Richest Musician'! How did the diminutive Bono do it you may ask? Did he sell some mansions? Did sales for Achtung Baby! Suddenly have a run on iTunes? Did he and Sting decide to stop feeding the poor people of the world (gotta cut corners where you can, you know)? Bono can attribute his sudden surge of wealth to...Facebook. As you may have heard, FB is now a public company and has been valued at over $100 billion for their IPO (initial public offering). Shares started selling at $38 per.
In 2009 a private equity firm co-founded by Bono paid $90 million to buy 2.3% of Facebook. How much is that investment worth now? How about $1.5 billion! Do you have any idea how many boxes of Lucky Charms he could buy with that kind of cheddar??? Truth be told, the richest musician is still Sir Paul because Bono is one of ten managing directors in the equity firm so his payout will be $150 million which does double his wealth as he was already worth $150 million.
All in all, I would say Bono is having a beautiful day. I mean, he has so much money he could buy a house where the streets have no name. Seriously, I heard that on that street all is quiet on new years day...Oh forget it!
