Bono buys Facebook shares

U2 frontman Bono invested $90 million US in the popular Facebook social network site through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners.

The Irish singer secretly bought 1% of Facebook shares at the end of 2009, for a reported $20 per share.

Bono is a co-founder of California-based Elevation Partners, an investment fund worth $1.8 billion that specializes in media and entertainment.

Bono hopes that this investment will enable Elevation to regain some value following some unsuccessful investments.

One of those major bombs was a $460 million investment in 2007 to obtain shares of smart phone maker Palm Inc. The downtown in the global economy caused share prices of this company to drop by 35%. 

Last month, editors at the financial journal 24/7 Wall Street gave Bono the dubious title of Worst Investor in America. They based their choice on "an unprecedented string of disastrous investments which even bad luck could not explain." They also said that Elevation Partners is "arguably the worst run institutional fund of any size in the United States."

This investment in Facebook might cause editors at this journal to change their tune next year.