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Elevation Partners Keeps Internet Hits Coming With Pandora

Daniel Hausmann, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on August 26, 2010 at 3:14 pm PT

Private equity firm Elevation Partners is continuing to invest in big-name venture-backed Internet businesses, this time putting a deal together for online radio service Pandora Media. The technology and media investor – which counts U2 front man Bono as a managing director – signed a letter of intent to buy a stake in a secondary sale from existing shareholders, a person familiar with the deal confirmed. TechCrunch reported the deal earlier.

Voices

Three's A Trend: First Facebook, Then Zynga, Now Yelp

Scott Austin, Lead Editor, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Wall Street journal in News on January 28, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Yelp Inc. now has another thing in common with social-networking site Facebook Inc. and online gaming company Zynga Inc. Besides being a fast-growing, venture-backed Internet company, the local-business review site has opted to receive an investment from a private equity firm that gives its employees a chance to partly cash out–and the company more breathing room to remain private.

UTube: 10 Million Streams for Bono and Co.’s Live Show

Peter Kafka in Media on October 29, 2009 at 4:22 am PT

What happens when one of the biggest bands in the world Webcasts a live concert on the world’s biggest video site? You get a lot of video streams. Close to 10 million, says YouTube, adding that Sunday’s live Webcast of U2′s Rose Bowl concert was the single largest event it has streamed so far.

Silicon Valley Start-Up Whisperer (And Twitter Investor, Natch) Sacca Speaks!

Kara Swisher in News on May 4, 2009 at 5:28 am PT

Since leaving Google several years ago, where he last worked on wireless spectrum issues, it’s hard to say exactly what role the digital jumping bean who is Chris Sacca plays. He’s not an entrepreneur, although he seems to know all of them in Web 2.0 world and advises 18 start-ups. He’s no longer a big-company exec, although he was one and knows a lot of them too. He’s not a venture capitalist, although he is involved in a private equity firm and invests in a lot of the start-ups he advises, like the red-hot Twitter, and knows those guys too. In any case, here’s my chat with the Silicon Valley gadfly, whom BoomTown has dubbed the Start-Up Whisperer.

Luck of the Irish?

John Paczkowski in News on August 19, 2008 at 8:52 am PT

U2 manager Paul McGuinness likes to blame those crazy longhairs in Silicon Valley for aiding and abetting music piracy, but perhaps he should be pointing the finger at his own boss.

U2: The Unforgettable Ire

John Paczkowski in News on June 5, 2008 at 9:01 am PT

If Bono is U2’s geopolitical pragmatist, the band’s manager, Paul McGuinness, is its neo-Luddite. At the Music Matters confab in Hong Kong, McGuinness slagged broadband Internet service providers, accusing them of aiding and abetting music piracy while CD sales and royalty payments to musicians plunge.