Posted on May 19, 2012 by Benjamin Shapiro

It’s official… as of yesterday U2‘s frontman Bono is now the richest musician in the world! Thanks to his role as a Managing Director of Elevate Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Bono, who’s real name is actually Paul David Hewson, owns 2.3% of Facebook.com (NASDAQ: FB). After Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO), Bono’s share of the popular social networking website are worth roughly $1.5 BILLION dollars. In 2009, Bono and Elevate invested $90 million dollars in the company Mark Zuckerberg famously founded in his dorm at Harvard University. In a little over two years, Bono’s stake in Facebook has generated return 1500% return on his original investment, pushing him into the top spot on the list of wealthiest musicians.

With his success in his technology investments, Bono passed Sir Paul McCartney, who’s fortune is an estimated $1 billion dollars. Apparently being a former member of The Beatles and a Knight is no longer a profitable enough career to keep Sir Paul on top of the financial heap in the music world.

While both Bono and McCartney are well off in their own respects, if Mark Zuckerberg decided to pick up a guitar today, he would have a net worth of roughly 10X Bono and McCartney’s combined fortunes. Congrats to Bono, Zuckerberg and everyone who struck it rich on Facebook’s great success!

Keep Rockin’!!!

Flicker Photos: 

Bono: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2296419561/
Paul McCartney: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58711927@N04/5398265250/

Tags: Bono richest musican paul mccartney facebook ipo FB worlds