• U2 stars Bono and the Edge invest millions in Dropbox
    27 replies, posted
[quote]The U2 stars Bono and the Edge are gambling on their biggest hit yet after investing millions of dollars in an internet storage company which is tipped to become the next Apple. The Irish singer and his guitarist colleague were announced as individual investors in Dropbox, a file-sharing service that lets users retrieve their photos, videos and documents from any web-connected device. One of Silicon Valley’s hottest properties, Dropbox has attracted 50 million users by word of mouth and is already valued at $4 billion. The company plans to challenge Apple and Google in the rapidly expanding "cloud" online storage business. Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston, who plays guitar in a grunge band, tweeted a picture of himself with Bono and the Edge to announce the rock stars’ investment. Alongside his reputation as a global philanthropist, Bono has become a shrewd investor in web technology companies through Elevation Partners, a $1.9 billion private equity fund which he co-founded in 2004. A $270 million investment in Facebook, buying shares from employees between 2009 and 2010, has already paid dividends. The stake is valued at $1 billion ahead of the social network’s Initial Public Offering this year. A $100 million stake in Yelp, a consumer business review website, has tripled in value after the company went public last month. Elevation has also suffered failures. A $117 million stake in SDI Media, a dubbing and subtitle company, went south after it was taken over by debtors and a $325 million investment in smartphone maker Palm, produced a modest $25 million gain. Bono and Edge were introduced to Dropbox by entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partovi, who were investors in the company. The Partovi brothers created a Facebook music video-sharing app, iLike, which Bono endorsed by giving an interview. Dropbox, described by Forbes magazine as “tech’s hottest start-up”, offers its storage service for free but is marketing a $20 a month upgrade for heavy users requiring 100Gb of storage. Each day 325 million files are saved through Dropbox. The size of Bono and Edge’s investment was not disclosed but Elevation said it was looking to make smaller investments, of $25 to $150 million as it seeks to raise a new funding round of $1 billion. Elevation is run by a former Apple executive, Fred Anderson with Bono listed as managing director. The star does not get involved in the company’s day-to-day administration - instead he is flown in to woo targets and potential investors. Previously Bono and Edge took over The Clarence Hotel in Dublin which they refurbished and transformed into a profitable venture after years of losses. The jury is out on their $75 million Spider-man stage musical, which was plagued by problems but announced record weekly takings for a Broadway musical in January. U2’s most recent 360 tour grossed a record £460 million but the band have been criticised by tax avoidance campaigners after shifting part of their financial affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands. The move, a response to a 2006 cap on tax breaks for artists in the Republic, was defended by the band, who said they paid taxes all over the world since 95 per cent of the business was outside of Ireland.[/quote] [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/u2-stars-bono-and-the-edge-invest-millions-in-internet-storage-company-dropbox-7615216.html[/url]
Dropbox is so simple, reliable and all around good. If I were a multi-millionaire I'd also invest in it.
Fuck yeah my favorite band Even if you hate U2, The Edge is a brilliant man on/off stage (and one of the best music composers around)
$4 billion? Fuck, if I had a company worth that much I'd just sell it to the highest bidder and be set for life.
Not too fond of Dropbox's rather tight bandwidth limits. Though I suppose that's to be expected considering it's main use is not as a usual file host, but that pretty much means I don't really have a use for it.
[QUOTE=Wealth + Taste;35411920]$4 billion? Fuck, if I had a company worth that much I'd just sell it to the highest bidder and be set for life.[/QUOTE] Probably why you'll never own a business worth that much.
My band uses dropbox to share recordings, lyrics and other related media. This is excellent news.
When people say they hate U2 it's generally Bono not the band itself. I met Adam Clayton once, he's a sound lad.
I currently have 3 devices being synched. Dropbox's awesome. [editline]3rd April 2012[/editline] But I don't see it becoming the next Apple.
U2 is awesome. And Dropbox is awesome. So this is awesome squared.
They deserve it, dropbox is the best cloud sharing program I know
[QUOTE=Paravin;35412177]U2 is awesome. And Dropbox is awesome. So this is awesome squared.[/QUOTE] Doesn't that make 2awesome? Or awesome + awesome?
[quote]internet storage company which is tipped to become the next Apple.[/quote] How does that even work.
[QUOTE=Clavus;35412427]How does that even work.[/QUOTE] Making alot of money from something which has been done many times before, but you did in a much nicer looking way and got popular for it = being an Apple
I prefer Box over DropBox, mainly because Box gives me 50gb of free space while still being fast. [editline]3rd April 2012[/editline] Also, the android app is nice too.
When Facebook started, Bono bought a load of shares. Now, the values of his shares are just over [b]$1,000,000,000[/b]. Lucky bastard!
Cool! Does dropbox still use Amazons services?
i wish dropbox would increase the free storage limits, 2gb is getting tight now with today's media
[QUOTE=booster;35411819]Dropbox is so simple, reliable and all around good. If I were a multi-millionaire I'd also invest in it.[/QUOTE] [quote]Totalbiscuit ‏ @Totalbiscuit And the Dropbox sync failed again. No luck this week. Switching out to an FTP based solution, cancelling my @dropbox account [/quote] lol
Very smart investment, not completely news-worthy though.
I still prefer box.com
[QUOTE=TestECull;35413439]lol[/QUOTE] Oh look someone has an issue, why don't they just contact support?
[QUOTE=Coffee;35413503]Oh look someone has an issue, why don't they just contact support?[/QUOTE] Because TotalBiscuit is an idiot.
i can't see anything that mentions bono without thinking of that episode of south park :v:
Spider Oak is litterally better in every way
[QUOTE=noobcake;35414627]i can't see anything that mentions bono without thinking of that episode of south park :v:[/QUOTE] All I thought when I saw the headline was "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH". [editline]3rd April 2012[/editline] Although in all seriousness, Dropbox is a pretty useful service. Its nice to know that once you save the file in the dropbox folder, it gets synced across everything else in almost real time.
I have nearly 11 GB of space on my Dropbox, and I abuse it to shit. It saves my life for school because I'm always losing my damned flash drive. I also like having backups of sensitive files in a TrueCrypt container on there just in case. Shared folders come in handy too. [editline]3rd April 2012[/editline] The best part about Dropbox is the fact that it sits on your HDD as a normal folder, you don't have to pull any tricks to upload anything, just drag and drop. This way you can play around with Symlinks. [editline]3rd April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=meppers;35413425]i wish dropbox would increase the free storage limits, 2gb is getting tight now with today's media[/QUOTE] Invite people for more space. Have an .edu email address? Go here. [url]https://www.dropbox.com/edu[/url] Log in normally and then just enter your .edu email address, you don't have to make a new account or anything. Result: [img]http://puu.sh/nL76[/img]
[QUOTE=Stick it in her pooper;35411887]Fuck yeah my favorite band Even if you hate U2, The Edge is a brilliant man on/off stage (and one of the best music composers around)[/QUOTE] Im okay with half of it of what you said and I agree that the edge is a brilliant to a degree, but given the monotonous stagnent sound of U2 i hardly say hes one of the best composers around. Hes damn good dont get me wrong, but their are just to many other, both classical and modern , that are capable of vast change in sound ans instrument set up and are still abale to produce their own uniquely definable sound and more over push themselves to a new limit and create absoluetly beautiful sounds and music. Again, not saying hes not great, but you cant say any one person is one of the best when they havnt really attempted much more then whats inside their comfort zone. Then again all music is relative to the listner to fuck it right? hah On topic though, im glad they are investing and we can still see dropbox live for years to come. At least there are artists who realize the potential and common usage of these programs and websites and support them without letting the pressures of labels, mpaa, and such get in the way. keep it up
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.