Former U2 management firm Principle Management records €204k loss

The management business bought by music giants Live Nation from former U2 manager Paul McGuinness recorded losses of €203,717 in its first year.

In November 2013, Mr McGuinness confirmed that he was stepping down as manager of U2 after more than 30 years at the helm when announcing the sale of his Dublin-based Principle Management to Live Nation.

The sale was part of a reported $30m deal that also included Live Nation purchasing Madonna’s entertainment company, Maverick.

As part of the deal, Mr McGuinness remained on as chair of Principle Management, with Guy Oseary taking over U2’s day-to-day management.

Principle was renamed Evergreen Ventures and Mr McGuinness formally moved — along with fellow director Trevor Bowen — to wind up Evergreen Ventures in December 2014.

Evergreen was expected to produce a cash pile of €1.1m in the voluntary winding up process.

As part of the process, a new Principle Management Ltd firm was set up in November 2013.

New accounts show that it had shareholder funds of €2.296m at the end of December 2014.

The accounts show that the Live Nation firm has a staff of two and paid out €767,501 in staff costs last year.

Its board members include Mr McGuinness, US-based Michael Rapino and Elizabeth Willard, and UK-based John Reid.

In a statement in December 2013, U2 thanked Mr McGuinness “for his extraordinary leadership, guidance and friendship over the last 35 years”.

The band said: “Perhaps more than any music management operation in history, Paul, alongside Trevor [Bowen], Keryn [Kaplan], and the team at Principle Management has always fought for our rights, for our music, for our fans and for the principles that we and he believe in.

“His central lesson was that if you cared for your ‘art’, you must also ‘take care of business’ as, historically with rock and roll bands, the latter has undone the former. We are relieved he will remain on as the mentor-in-chief.”

Mr McGuinness said last year: “People forget that U2 have been the world’s champions of music for over 20 years now and while it may become routine, there’s no reason not to be very proud of it.”