Latest U2 News & Information

Reports this morning say the Dublin super-group have a combined fortune of €618m.

Michael Flatley is the second-richest entertainer with an estimated €465m.

This year’s overall Sunday Times rich list is reportedly headed by Dublin-born model Hilary Weston, who married into a retailing dynasty in Canada, giving her an estimated fortune of €7bn.

- Independent News & Media

THE Sunday Independent in Ireland published its annual list of who’s making what over there, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, U2 top the list of wealthiest entertainers, with a healthy bank balance of €900 million. Nice! “The band, which has traditionally split earnings equally among Bono, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, the Edge and manager Paul McGuinness, has begun to divide up its vast portfolio among their respective families,” says the Indo. Clearly, the relatives won’t have any financial worries in the future!

Coming in second is Michael Flatley, who’s said to have €590 million to his name. Chicago-born Flatley resides full time at his Castlehyde mansion in Co. Cork with wife Niamh and son Michael Junior. “He has a wide range of investments,” says the paper. Putting it mildly! Read the rest of this story »

Live Nation, the promoter that owns or manages venues such as Wembley Arena and Manchester Apollo, has signed an $80 million (£40 million) upfront deal with U2 that will tie the Irish rock band to its venues for the next 12 years.

The deal underlines the growing battle for live rights and cements the Irish four piece into a long-term deal, where previously the band worked with New York-listed Live Nation on a tour-by-tour basis.

Bono, lead singer of U2, said: “We’ve been dating for over 20 years now; it’s about time we tied the knot.” Live Nation has produced every U2 tour since 1997 but company bosses first worked with the band in Toronto in 1980. Read the rest of this story »

US concert promotion company Live Nation has signed U2 up to for 12-year deal for merchandising.While U2 will stay with Universal Music, all merchandising, digital and branding rights will now be controlled by Live Nation.

The deal will be global.

Live Nation has managed U2’s world tours for the last 20 years.

Licensing rights, sponsorship opportunities, fan club and web site activity as well as marketing and creative services will be handled now by Live Nation on behalf of the band.

The deal falls short of a similar agreement the company signed with Madonna last year. Under the Madonna deal, the touring company will also release all of Madonna’s new music once her Warner deal runs out after her forthcoming ‘Hard Candy’ album.

Live Nation shares closed at $11.83 on Friday, down from 12 month high of $24.09

by Paul Cashmere, Undercover.com.au

AS if we hadn’t seen enough ways to make an extra buck from U2, it seems they’ve come up with yet another one.

But now they’ve just been given a hammering for their latest idea — and “ripping off” fans — by legendary pop impresario Harvey Goldsmith.

The band, it would seem, have plans to cash in on a new-found way to soak music fans: “reselling” tickets for gigs by auction to get more than their face value.

Goldsmith bumped into Paul McGuinness, the “fifth band member” of U2 (and presumably one of the five mystery employees who were each paid €5m last year by U2’s parent company), at a music industry festival in France last month.

McGuinness had just given a speech lambasting internet service providers (ISPs) as thieves for allowing music piracy traffic by their users. With declining album sales internationally, he was doing his job and protecting his band’s revenue stream. Fair enough.

But when Goldsmith — who is one of the world’s most famous promoters of live music — met McGuinness for a drink afterwards and discussed how the internet has effectively legalised ticket touts, he was shocked at the response. So much so that Goldsmith used the conversation as an anecdotal intro for a “keynote address” at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles. Read the rest of this story »

The music industry should shift the focus of its battle with internet piracy towards the technological industries which have “built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it”, according to Paul McGuinness, manager of rock group U2.

Mr McGuinness, a highly-respected figure in the industry, told delegates to Midem, the music industry’s international trade show being staged in France, that they had concerned themselves for too long with the small fries who organised illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing on the internet.

Mr McGuinness, who has managed U2 for 30 years, said: “I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P file thief and on to the multibillion dollar industries that benefit from these countless tiny crimes. The ISPs [internet service providers] the telcos [telecoms companies], the device-makers.”

Read the rest of this story »

Live Nation Artists, a subsidiary of the live event production/promotion company Live Nation, has agreed to acquire Signatures Network, a global music merchandise corporation that holds merchandising licenses for some 150 artists, including the Beatles, U2, the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen. Live Nation’s Artist division, which was formed earlier this year, hopes the relationship will continue to bolster their position in the always active area of merchandising and will see Signatures’ CEO, Dell Furano, taking the reins as head of the new enterprise. The acquisition was valued at $79 million, a number that includes cash, stock and repayment of debt that Signatures has outstanding.

- CMJ

Five people employed by one of rock band U2’s companies shared almost €18 million in wages last year, the firm’s accounts show. Barry O’Halloran reports.

It could not be confirmed yesterday if the band’s members - Bono, the Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton, and their manager Paul McGuinness - were the people paid by the company, as the accounts do not name the employees.

A representative of U2’s London-based management company refused to comment on the accounts yesterday.

Read the rest of this story »

Web Reservations International (WRI), the online accommodation reservation firm owned by U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, saw profits surge 30pc last year.Its latest accounts show that the firm recorded pre-tax profits of E16.6 million up from E12.8m in 2005.

WRI owns a number of online accommodation brands including Hostels.com, Hostelworld.com, Boo.com, Trav.com and Worldres.com. The company, which is based in Dublin, also provides accommodation through third parties, including Ryanair.

Turnover for the year rose from to E27.2m from E21.7m, according to accounts just filed at the Companies Registration Office.

The company added 10 staff during the year, bringing the total to 45. The increase pushed up wages, which include directors’ salaries, to E2.3m from E1.6m.

(BizWorld)