21 U2 €845m s €50m
MUSIC Bono (57), The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton proved they’ve still got it, scoring a number one with their latest album Songs of Experience. The Dublin rockers, who shifted parts of their business to the Netherlands 11 years ago to reduce tax, also booked sales of about $316m for their Joshua Tree tour last year, according to Billboard.
The band was formed when they were teenagers and their first album Boy was released in 1980.
The band’s 360° tour from 2009 to 2011 was the highest-grossing tour of all time, with the band said to have made €660m out of it. Outside of music, band members have diverse interests and investments including a stake in the Clarence Hotel, which recorded profits of €500,000 in 2016, and a number of properties in Dundrum and Dublin’s Docklands.
The Edge has been helping guitar-maker Fender market a learning app, while he and Bono have also backed ticket booking start-up Coras and the AI-bioactive food ingredients firm Nuritas. Meanwhile, Bono is also a cofounder of the Rise social investment fund, which has backed startups in a number of sectors from milk and digital education to the Internet of Things.
The members own some amazing houses from Killiney Hill to sea-front castles in Eze and on the Cote d’Azur. The Edge is also behind a development of five ecohomes above Malibu on a plot of over 140 acres, which have recently received planning permission and will cost tens of millions to build.
There was also an investment in a chain of Belgian hotels. Bono’s finances got a massive boost through his roll as a partner in $1.9bn US tech venture capital firm Elevation. It netted huge profits from a 2.3pc stake in Facebook bought back in 2009 that was thought to be worth about $1.5bn.