Recently in the Business News Category

By Neil McCormick, The Telegraph UK

Bono's back. And so am I.

I've been on holiday and so (no doubt to the dismay of my personal Twitter parodist) missed the return of U2 to live action. I gather all is going well and that Bono's back problems have been sorted out: "rebuilt by German engineering" as the man himself said. Apparently his doctor told him he would "run further and faster in the future." Vorsprung Durch Technik and all that. I still say they could have saved a lot of money, disruption and heartache with the simple deployment of an ergonomic stool. It worked for Val Doonican.

Anyway, enough about the man who stands at the front of the U2 juggernaut. In the new issue of GQ, we hear from the man who stands behind it. Manager Paul McGuinness has written a fascinating article: How To Save The Music Industry.

Lady Gaga, Beyonce, AC/DC also make biggest paydays

By Chris Barth, Rolling Stone Magazine

U2's massive 360° Tour has helped propel the band to Number One on Forbes' annual report on top-earning musicians. Bono and Co. scored the top spot on the list by netting $130 million in the past 12 months. They're followed by AC/DC -- who just wrapped their 108-city Black Ice world tour on June 28th -- with $144 million. Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and Britney Spears round out the Top Five.

Forbes calculates rockers' earnings based on net income from ticket sales, record sales and endorsement deals between June 2009 and June 2010. Unsurprisingly, album sales didn't drive most artists to the top of the list -- giant tours and strategic corporate team-ups were responsible for most of the profits. Lady Gaga is the youngest performer in the Top 10, bringing in $62 million to score her first-ever appearance on the list thanks partially to partnerships with Polaroid, Virgin Mobile and Monster, who puts out her Heartbeats ear buds. Gaga just edged out Madonna, who has made the countdown for the past four years and raked in major cash last year on her giant Sticky & Sweet Tour.

Mary Carolan, The Irish Times

U2 GUITARIST Adam Clayton gave his former personal assistant Carol Hawkins full authority to operate his bank accounts but "couldn't be bothered" over a period of about four years to read bank statements which would have suggested he was "haemorrhaging" a huge sum of money, the Commercial Court was told yesterday.

Michael McDowell SC, for Bank of Ireland Private Banking Ltd, said Clayton seemed to think the bank should have noticed more than €4 million was missing from his accounts between 2004 and 2009 when he had not.

By Buzz Brady, Irish Central

Bono and his wife Ali Hewson may be at risk of losing million as their ethical clothing change, Edun, continues to lose money.

At the end of last year Bono, and his wife of 28 years, Ali, moved their family from Dublin to New York to help launch the ethical clothing line based in Tribeca, Manhattan.

Ali has now revealed that the business has so far failed to make a profit.

"It hasn't made money -- it hasn't made a profit yet," said Ali. "But it's growing. It's growing.

"The first five years of the company is about putting money in and building the trade. So of course we had to support it. We're still here supporting it now, because we believe in it."

The Irish band and their manager have a combined wealth estimated at £429m

BBC News

U2 and their manager Paul McGuinness top the Irish Sunday Times Music Millionaires Rich List.

Their combined wealth is estimated at £429m, a rise of 1% on 2009.

In second place is Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley, with his total wealth calculated at £241m.

The paper said his fortunes have dipped by 2% in the past year because of a fall in the value of the The Lord of the Dance brand.

The future of Palm (PALM) looks bleak and U2 lead singer Bono investor in Elevation Partners may lose $460 million (€340m) on deal.

NEW YORK (Laureate BVI) -- Elevation, a private equity firm that includes U2 lead singer Bono among its partners, has made three more investments in Palm since its initial deal, buying common stock, convertible preferred shares and warrants worth about $460 million (€340m).

Elevation, which now controls roughly 30 percent of Palm, has stood by the smartphone maker, even as other shareholders bailed and analysts warned its days as an independent company may be numbered.

Palm's future has not looked good since the launch of the iPhone. But after reporting worse than expected results for the third quarter last week Thursday, some analysts think the company's stock is now essentially worthless. Three analysts even lowered their price targets to $0.

by Chris Mugan, Spinner

U2's frontman Bono looks set to make a mint from the sale of troubled smart phone maker Palm.

Bono's private equity company Elevation Partners is a major investor in the company currently seeking buyers. In December 2008, Elevation bought $100 million (£64.8 million) of Palm shares at $3.24 (£2.10) a pop to take its stake up to 41 per cent. These investments jumped up 32 percent in value last week to $5.16 (£3.34) a share.

Palm originally made PDA devices and recently launched the Pre and Pixi smartphones, as rivals to the iPhone. While the handsets received critical acclaim, sales have failed to match expectations. Palm has posted losses for the last 11 financial quarters, the Daily Telegraph reported.

By Dara Kelly, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Bono, the Irish rock star, is being hailed as "the worst investor in America" as his five person investment team Elevation Partners reels from a series of unprofitable investments. It's believed that the rocker has lost millions by investing with Elevation, although a precise figure has yet to be released. What's certain is that the U2 front man has put significant money into Elevation, which investment trade papers are calling arguably the worst run institutional fund of any size in the United States.

Bono is listed as one of the five members of the firm's investment team, and their fund claims that its "mission is to help media and entertainment businesses develop and market great content." But in the process it has made an unprecedented string of disastrous investments which, observers say, even bad luck could not explain. The most well-known of the Elevation investments is in Palm, which made an unsuccessful stab at the smartphone business dominated by Apple's iPhone, and handsets powered by the Google mobile operating system known as Android. Investors had hoped that Palm's new line of Pre handsets would allow the company to be a modest competitor in the smart phone industry but instead it has spent massive amounts for very slim returns and remains in trouble as it tries to reach even fairly modest sales goals.

Belfast Telegraph

U2's global 360-degree tour is generating enough cash to make your head spin.

New figures show that Bono and the boys raked in more money than any other music act in the United States last year -- earning a staggering £71 million from touring, record sales and other royalties.

According to the music journal 'Billboard', U2's earnings - which were dominated by ticket receipts from their ground-breaking tour - were almost twice as much as the next biggest earner on the list, Bruce Springsteen.

He had to make do with £37 million last year, although he will not have to split it five ways as Bono, the Edge, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton and Paul McGuinness will with the U2 earnings.

by Kate Harper, CHARTattack

You know that vault full of change Scrooge McDuck has in DuckTales? Well, U2 could build one of those right now because they're truly swimming in dough.

The Irish quartet have topped Billboard.com's list of the top money makers of 2009, raking in a total of $108,601,283 U.S. (about $114.3 million Canadian) last year.

Singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. might have spent $750,000 U.S. (about $789,000 Canadian) per show on their 360 Tour, but they sold more tickets than they ever have according to Billboard.com. Their merchandise and website also helped them make even more money.