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And Finally
Bono is the worst investor in America
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 25 March 2010
More City news, and Bono has been dubbed the “worst investor in America” by finance website 24/7 Wall Street because of his involvement in US equity firm Elevation Partners, an investment fund set up by the U2 rocker, former Apple CFO Fred Anderson and three equity experts, and named after the U2 song ‘Elevation’.
24/7 Wall Street says that, through its large investments in smart phone firm Palm, media operation Forbes and property website Move.com, the equity set up has been involved in “an unprecedented string of disastrous investments which even bad luck could not explain”.
According to the website, Palm’s stock has “tanked” since Elevation got involved, Forbes’ total value is now $100 million despite Elevation’s $300 million investment in its online operations in 2006, while Move.com has lost 50% of its value since the equity types got involved. More recently it invested in a San Francisco-based user-generated business review website that has since been accused of extorting money out of local businesses in return for the sneaky editing of user reviews.
Of course, one assumes Bono isn’t actively involved in the day to day operations of the fund he backs, but still, it’s much more fun if we blame him personally for all the misguided investments because then we, like other media, can dub the U2 man the “worst investor in America”. Given his poor record in City type dealing, it’s a damn good job he managed to avoid all that Irish tax isn’t it?
