It’s a beautiful day: Facebook IPO makes Bono world’s richest rock star

It’s become a cliche these days to refer to anyone who is talented or successful in their industry as being a “rock star” of their chosen field. We say this as a way to convey that this person is not only successful, but that he or she is a true influencer among their peers, blessed with a certain amount of charisma and charm and that unique ability to get people excited about their industry.

When people talk about today’s “rock stars” of investing, they might point to some of the usual suspects like Warren Buffet, John Bogle or Peter Lynch. But after Facebook’s IPO is launched on Friday, the good-old-boys club of savvy investors may have to make room for someone less known for being a successful investor and more known for being a, well, rock star.

Per Nasdaq’s website:

Bono is among the long list of those who will benefit when Facebook goes public on Friday. The U2 singer is set to become the richest man in rock when Facebook shares go on public sale tomorrow, overtaking Sir Paul McCartney who has topped the rock ‘n’ roll rich-list for years and is currently worth roughly 665 million pounds.

Bono will overtake that by some distance when Facebook goes public. His Elevation Partners equity firm bought 2.3% of Zuckerberg’s company in 2009 for $90 million, and that investment will be worth over $1.5 billion when the deal is done.

Of course, regular people will say that it must be nice to have $90 million to risk, and they will be right. For most people, $1 million is an amount of money outside of their wildest dreams, never mind $90 million. But Bono, it is fair to say, is not most people.

Nasdaq goes on to note that when Elevation Partners first bought the Facebook stock, it was worth $9 billion; by the end of last year Goldman Sachs had valued it at $50 billion.

Bono’s net worth has been estimated to be over $900 million.

Related item: 25 largest listed companies. Where Facebook ranks.