Here I am again, talking about U2 and Bono, but at the news that their 360 tour’s total revenue reached more than $736 million from June 2009 to July 2011 and beat a record in the history of the music business, I couldn't stay silent.
The world’s most successful tour ever,…. But what are they going to do with all that money? Will the Edge finally buy more of that Malibu Coast he wants so much? Will Bono buy more of Forbes Media or Facebook (he already owns a 1.5% stake in Facebook).
I have a suggestion for Bono, didn’t he declare the end of AIDS recently? Well he can do it, or at least he can get us closer to the solution.
According to a report from IAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the recently published report of the HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group shows that funding for preventive HIV vaccine Research and Development had tripled from US from 2000 ($327 million) to 2007 ($961 million), but has dropped about 10% in 2007. Between 2009 and 2010, overall investment in HIV vaccine Research and Development dropped 1% from $868 million to $859 million.
Do you see what I see? With his $736 million U2 could almost finance one year of research on HIV vaccine, not negligible, or at least, they could rectify that drop in the funding these recent years. Bono does not need to launch another Red or One campaign, or whatever he calls them, it is that simple!