How rich is Bob Geldof?
Twenty-six years on from Live Aid, Bob Geldof is now a 'non-dom' with a a string of successful business exploits under his belt. So how much is he worth?
We are family: Bob Geldof with his daughters Pixie and Peaches
When Bob Geldof brought out his new album, quirkily entitled 'How to Compose Popular Songs that Will Sell' (pictured below), the former 1970s punk rocker turned anti-poverty campaigner seemed to be taking irony to new a new level.
Despite supportive reviews, including one describing it as a potential 'album of the year', he told reporters that he didn't have high hopes for its financial success: 'The chances of me selling any f***ing records are entirely slim,' he said.
Was this merely modesty or a realistic admission that his earnings potential as a rock star has waned in the three decades since his band the Boomtown Rats topped the charts with the likes of Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays?
Certainly Geldof, 59, long ago gave up seeking a rock star-style salary from rock, although he clearly loves making music: this is his fifth solo album.
Instead he has derived his main income from a string of other ventures over the years, ranging from public speaking on his pet subject of third world poverty to setting up in the travel business and television production.
He is worth a mint although he has not appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List since 2006, when his wealth was put at £35m.
The controversial character cut his campaigning and organisational teeth first with the Band Aid single in 1984. The next year with the seminal Live Aid concert that he coordinated internationally with Midge Ure to raise a spectacular £150m to help beat starvation in Africa.
United: Bob Geldof and Midge Ure at Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium, 1985
'People are dying now. Give us the money now. Give me the money now,' he hectored.
His efforts earned him an honorary knighthood and world recognition as an anti-poverty activist.
Geldof puts his political awareness and ability to stand up for others down to the fact he had to be self-sufficient from an early age. His mother died when he was seven and since his travelling salesman dad left him and his two sisters to care for themselves during the week, he filled his time with serious radio listening and reading.
Together: Bob Geldof and Paula Yates in 1993
Geldof's solo career did reasonably well in the 1990s but the real money started rolling in when he branched out into the business world.
Geldof nevertheless managed to forge hit gold in the television production business in the 1990s and even escaped with a decent sum from a venture in the dotcom market.
He set up TV production company Planet 24 in 1992, which was responsible for Channel 4 ratings hits such as the Big Breakfast with Chris Evans, and sold the company to Carlton Communications in 1999, netting himself £5m.
Shortly afterwards he launched Ten Alps (a play on planet spelt backwards) which among other projects devised the government-funded Teachers TV which has been broadcasting for more than five years. However, this project's future is now in doubt after the government cancelled the £10m a year contract as part of its recent public sector cuts.
Geldof's shareholding was valued at £2m in 2007 but that fell to nearer £450,000 when the contract was put on notice last October. It remains to be seen what damage it will do to the company, which had sales of over £66m and an operating profit of £4.4m in the year to March 2010.
Boomtown Rats: Bob Geldof in 1978
But Geldof doesn't have all his eggs in one basket. He is also a director of Castaway Television, which owns the rights to the reality show Survivor and Celebrity Survivor, both huge ratings successes in the US.
In 2002, the company started legal action against Granada TV, accusing it of stealing their idea with I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here but later withdrew the claim. Shareholders, including Geldof, Lord Alii and Big Breakfast creator Charlie Parsons shared a dividend of £4.9m in 2008 on the back of sales that had risen to £8.8m from £6.1m in 2009.
Meanwhile like many entrepreneurs of his generation, Geldof also dabbled in the dotcom arena, launching an online travel business Deckchair.com in 1999. And like many internet operations at the time, its value ballooned (to £15m at the peak of the craze) but plummeted in the dotcom crash of summer 2000.
It was sold in March 2001 to the World Travel Corporation for £3.2m - still, Geldof walked away with £500,000 from the sale, although it is thought he may have invested and lost a chunk of his Planet 24 gains in the process.
The confident orator also commands high sums for speaking engagements, including one event in Australia last year where he was paid $AUS100,000 (£63,000).
Geldof has managed to sustain these business efforts despite enduring some personal hardship, including a breakdown after his TV presenter wife Paula Yates left him for rock star Michael Hutchence - and further tragedy when they both died, Yates from a drug and alcohol overdose.
Forever: Bob Geldof and his partner Jeanne Moreau
His three daughters Fifi, Peaches and Pixie plus Tiger Lily, Yates' child by Hutchence, were brought up in these homes.
Geldof was criticised in the Daily Mail in 2003 for holding these multi-million properties in the names of offshore companies to avoid £1.6m plus in inheritance tax, although his accountant said that this had been done in error with one of the properties and that it would be rectified.
Despite being occupied with his varied business interests, Geldof's passion for helping Africa has never waned. In 2005, he staged the Live 8 anti-poverty pop concerts in the G8 countries to encourage governments to commit more aid to Africa.
And in late 2010 he combined his business and poverty action hats by fronting the launch of a $750m (£460m) private equity fund called 8 Miles, which aims to raise money to invest in businesses in the African continent.
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