Bono's Facebook stake worth nearly $1bn (BLOG)

U2 frontman Bono 's investment firm could be looking at a profit of almost $800m on its stake in Facebook, it has emerged. The social...

U2 frontman Bono's investment firm could be looking at a profit of almost $800m on its stake in Facebook, it has emerged.

The social networking site has just been valued at an eye-popping $65bn - up from $50bn in January - following the sale of a stake by advertising and marketing giant Interpublic Group.

Interpublic was an early investor in Facebook and has just sold half of its 0.4% share in the group for $133m (£81m), valuing the site at more than $65bn.

This values the U2's Elevation Partners' stake at $975m - more than four times the $210m it paid in November 2009.

Interpublic Group chief executive Michael Roth said an "attractive opportunity" to sell some of the stake had presented itself and it "made sense" to do so.

IPG did not reveal the number of shares it is selling but said that the sell-off would see a pre-tax gain of about $132m.

Facebook is now one of Elevation's stellar investments. When it bought the stock - which is difficult to get hold of - the company was hot but worth a relatively "meagre" $9bn.

In June last year it was worth $23bn and by December last year Goldman Sachs, which canvassed its wealthy private clients about a possible investment opportunity, had valued it at $50bn.

So it looks like Elevation Partners got stuck in quite a profitable moment.

Earlier this year Forbes named U2 as one of the world's highest paid musicians, having taken $736m - and profits of around $195m - from record sales and concert receipts over the last two years.