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U2 Singer Bono Turns Billionaire From Savvy Facebook Investment, Now World’s Richest Rock Star

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:32 PST, Aug 30, 2015

U2 singer Bono made a savvy investment in Facebook back in 2009, and he has now overtaken Sir Paul McCartney to become the world’s richest rock star and a billionaire to boot.

It is lucky indeed that rock group U2 singer Bono made investments in Facebook and, apparently, the review site Yelp, as apparently his own business took a nosedive recently, losing almost £44 million ($68 million). The ethical clothing company was founded by Bono and his wife Ali Hewson in 2005 and turned out to not be quite the success they hoped.

Lead U2 singer Bono became the co-founder in a private equity firm, Elevation Partners, back in 2004, investing in several different companies, including Palm, Yelp, Forbes and, of course, Facebook, where he had in total three separate investments.

Back in 2009, Bono bought a 2.3 percent share in Facebook for £56 million ($85 million) and according to Irish Central, that share is now worth a hefty £940 million ($1.4 billion) to the U2 singer.

Bono has now reportedly earned more in just six years from his investment in the social media network than he did in his entire music career, including 40 years as the U2 singer. Bono now overtakes both McCartney and singer Madonna in the high earnings stakes, as the world’s richest musician. According to Yahoo, McCartney is apparently worth £730m ($1.12 billion) while Madonna is thought to be worth a mere £520m ($800 million).

The 55-year-old U2 singer Bono probably needs the cash, however, as despite his political activism against poverty in the past, Bono has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle.

Reportedly some 12 years ago, he spent £1,000 ($1,540) on a first class plane seat for his hat. He apparently needed to wear it when attending an event in Italy and the hat flew to him, unaccompanied and in style.

The U2 singer has also been criticized over the band being domiciled outside Ireland for tax purposes.

The news that U2 singer Bono is now a billionaire comes as Facebook announced its own one billion milestone. As reported on the Inquisitr, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that one billion people used the social media website in one day, which accounts for one in seven people on Earth.

[Photo: U2 singer Bono by Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images Entertainment]

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