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Are Bono and Steve Jobs on the Rocks?

by Lee Bains on December 24, 2008 at 12:01 PM




Apple founder Steve Jobs and U2 frontman Bono have ended their association, Valleywag's Owen Thomas theorizes. And, better yet, he thinks he knows why.

While Bono has publicly and privately supported Jobs, and Apple generally, over the past few years, it looks like the tide has turned more recently. Over the years, Bono has proclaimed Jobs "the Dalai Lama of integration," Jobs has attended a U2 show, and the two have jointly released a U2-styled iPod.

Now, though, Bono sits behind his desk at private-equity firm Elevation Partners and funnels more and more money into Palm, one of Apple's strongest competitors in the smartphone arena. At present, Elevation owns 39-percent of the company, whose executive chairman is former Apple hardware executive Jon Rubinstein.

So why the sudden change of heart?

Thomas hypothesizes that this tiff had its origins in the treatment of one man: former Apple CFO and current Elevation investor Fred Anderson. Anderson resigned from Apple in 2006, following an investigation into Apple's backdating stock options. Anderson was already investing for Elevation at that point, so Thomas theorizes that Bono got a little upset with his old buddy and decided to burn the bridge once and for all. In Thomas's words: "Jobs wasn't just messing with Bono's pal; he was messing with his pocketbook."

And, why act so surprised? If we've learned anything over the past few months, it is that -- say what he will -- Bono ain't no saint. [From: Valley Wag]

Tags: apple, bono, business, relationships, steve jobs, SteveJobs

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