Bono - Other Endeavours

Other Endeavours

In 1992, Bono, along with the Edge, bought and refurbished Dublin's two-star 70-bedroom Clarence Hotel, and converted it into a five-star 49-bedroom hotel.

The Edge and Bono have also recorded several songs together, exclusive of the band. They have also been working on penning the score for the 2011 rock musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Bono is a known Celtic F.C. fan, and in 1998 it was rumoured that Bono intended to buy shares in the Scottish club, which Bono denied.

In May 2007, MTV reported that Bono was writing the foreword for a collection of poetry entitled "Third Rail". The book's foreword gives detail of the meanings of the poetry, saying "The poets who fill the pews here have come to testify, to bear witness to the mysterious power of rock and roll...Rock and roll is truly a broad church, but each lights a candle to their vision of what it is." The collection, which is edited by poet Jonathan Wells, contains titles such as "Punk rock You're My Big Crybaby", "Variation on a Theme by Whitesnake", and "Vince Neil Meets Josh in a Chinese Restaurant in Malibu (After Ezra Pound)."

Bono is on the board of the Elevation Partners private-equity firm, which attempted to purchase Eidos Interactive in 2005 and has since gone on to invest in other entertainment businesses. Bono has invested in the Forbes Media group in the US through Elevation Partners. Elevation Partners became the first outsider to invest in the company, taking a minority stake in Forbes Media LLC, a new company encompassing the 89-year-old business which includes Forbes magazine, the Forbes.com website and other assets. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports said the stake was worth about €194 million ($250m). The firm also owns a 1.5% stake in social networking site Facebook, originally purchased for $210m. Bono's stake was valued at approximately US$ 1 billion in February 2012.