BONO - BONO HANDED $84 MILLION IN PALM VENTURE

BONO HANDED $84 MILLION IN PALM VENTURE

BONO has been rewarded for investing $100 million (GBP67.1 million) to rescue smart telephone maker Palm Inc. - the U2 rocker has earned $84 million (GBP56.4 million) after the company's stock prices skyrocketed.
Bosses at the Irish musician's Elevation Partners company announced last month (22Dec08) they would make the investment to save the debt-riddled firm, the maker of Treo and Centro smart phones, as it prepared to introduce new products this month (Jan09).
The new touch-sensitive technology helped Palm's shares soar by 34 per cent on Friday (09Jan09).
Elevation Partners, a California-based private-equity business, which counts Bono as a managing partner, pumped $325 million (GBP218.1 million) into Palm in October 2007, in exchange for a 25 per cent stake in the company.
But it reported a loss of $506 million (GBP339.6 million) in the company's most recent quarter, prompting Elevation to invest the latest multi-million dollar sum, raising the firm's stake to 39 per cent.
The hike boosted the value Bono gambled by an estimated 84 per cent, to $184 million (GBP123.5 million).