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Reports Claim Bono Likely to Become Richest Rocker on Planet; Bono Denies

Entertainment Tonight, Friday, May 18, 2012, 9:05am (PDT)
  • U2 frontman Bono is expected to become the wealthiest rocker in the world, with his 2 percent stake in Facebook bringing in an estimated $1.5 billion.

    However, the rocker claims he's not as rich as everyone thinks. "Contrary to reports, I am not at this point a billionaire, or going to be richer than any Beatle," Bono told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

    Bono invested in the social media site in 2009, spending $90 million to purchase 2.3 percent of Facebook shares through his private equity firm Elevation Partners. Organizers arranging Facebook's IPO settled on a price of $38 per share and the company and its investors raised about $16 billion in the historic offering.

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    Facebook, which current CEOMark Zuckerberg and others started in a college dorm room eight years ago, debuted Friday morning on the Nasdaq Stock Market with the third-largest IPO in U.S. history that made the company -- started by current CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others in a college dorm room eight years ago -- the most valuable U.S. firm to ever go public.

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    The Facebook investment is likely to push Bono into the No. 1 spot of the world's richest musicians, bumping former Beatle Paul McCartney, who is estimated to be worth just over $1 billion.

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    But don't expect the charity-friendly rock star to go on a spending spree. He's said in the past that money raised from his investments will mostly be funneled to his various philanthropic projects in Africa.

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