TORONTO – Bono has over a billion reasons to like Facebook on Friday as the investment one of his companies made in the social network in 2009 could be worth more than a $1 billion.
Facebook’s 28-year-old founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, smiled as he rang the opening bell of the stock exchange from Facebook’s headquarters in California.
Bono may have been smiling along with him.
According to NASDAQ, the Irish musician’s equity firm Elevation Inc. invested $90 million for 2.3 per cent of Facebook in 2009.
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In an interview with MSNBC, Bono denied that he will be a billionaire or that he will be the richest musician in the world. He said Elevation invests other people’s money but that he will get a cut.
“We do get paid,” he told MSNBC. “And that is a good thing.”
The stock opened Friday morning at $42.05, but soon dipped to $38.01.
By noon, it was up again at $40.40, a 6 per cent increase. The social media company’s stock fluttered throughout the day, but never hit the double-digit jump that many had expected.
More than 500 million shares changed hands throughout the day.
The closing price means Facebook is worth about $105 billion, more than Amazon.com, McDonalds and storied Silicon Valley icons Hewlett-Packard and Cisco.
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