Pop icons Bono and Prince may share an unerring gift forcrafting hits, but when it comes to keeping that money through financial savvy,it seems they still haven't found what they're looking for.
While U2's frontman is celebrated for his charitable work inAfrica and bipartisan approach to political issues, the Irish singer isactually "the worstinvestor in America" according to the online publication, 24/7Wall Street.
Bono is one of five members of ElevationPartners' investment team, which 24/7 Wall Street claims has made "anunprecedented string of disastrous investments which even bad luck could notexplain."
The U2 singer's firm has invested huge amounts of money intoPalm smartphones, Forbes magazine, and Move.com, all of which are currentlystruggling. Elevation's largest investment is also its most disastrous: Bono'sfirm put $460 million into Palm, the company that unsuccessfully tried to carvea piece of the smartphone market away from Apple, RIM, and other more popularmobile handset-makers. Last September, Palm's shares sold for $18, but when thecompany released its most recent earnings figures, sharesplummeted to $3.65.
Prince's financialwoes are of another kind-he's not so much losing money as he is failing topay it. The Purple One owes more than $227,000 in taxes to his home state ofMinnesota for his PRN Music Corporation, which is located in his famous PaisleyPark complex near Minneapolis.
The majority of that amount was due back in 2009, with anextra $27,000 thrown on as a penalty for delinquency.
If that isn't enough, the county's taxpayer services managerestimates that with all his property combined, the R&B mastermind owesabout $450,000 in taxes. If Prince doesn't rustle up the cash before April21 or file a written objection, he could faceforfeiture on those properties, some of which he's owned since the '80s.
If there are any doves nesting in Paisley Park, it seems wemay finally learn what it sounds like when they cry.