The funding for the deal is not related to savings Bono hopes to make after U2 pulled some of its financial operations out of Ireland to reduce its tax bill in the Republic, a move criticised by an Irish Government source.

Bono is one of six partners in the Elevation consortium - named after a U2 album - which has paid an estimated $300M to own 40% of Forbes Media, according to reports.

The Forbes publishing empire, which includes the 89-year-old Forbes magazine and forbes.com website, was owned by former U.S. presidential candidate Steve Forbes, his three brothers and one sister who inherited it from their extravagant father Malcolm when he died in 1990.

Elevation's stated strategy is to help established media companies utilize new media, while Steve Forbes said that the decision to bring in a new investor was driven by massive changes in the publishing world, where more readers are using the internet and other channels to seek news.

"This investment by Elevation Partners will now accelerate our pursuit of a number of very exciting opportunities for growth," said Steve Forbes, the Forbes president and chief executive. The Forbes family will continue to hold executive positions after the deal.

Bono is one of six partners at Elevation, including Fred Anderson, the former chief financial officer of Apple Computers, and financiers Bret Pearlman and Roger McNamee. The Irish rock star - who chose his stage name from a Dublin-based hearing aid company Bonovox and whose real name is Paul Hewson - is not believed to have been directly involved in the talks that led to the Forbes deal.

"The web has disrupted traditional business models in the print world. Forbes is poised to take advantage of a huge opportunity," said Elevation partner Roger McNamee. He said the consortium was delighted. "We are like a kid in a candy store," he added.

Forbes is known for its rich lists and lavish property profiles, and its celebration of wealth and capitalism. As such, it's not an apparent easy fit for Bono, who has become known as a champion for the alleviation of Third World poverty. But there's no conflict, according to McNamee.

Bono was drawn to Forbes because it "has a point of view" and "that he drove this part of the discussion and likes...that there has been a consistent philosophy throughout its history," McNamee said.

Forbes, like other publishers in the print media, has suffered from declining revenues and lost advertising, but has been aggressively establishing an internet presence.

Some of the huge cash injection will go into the business, but the family could see themselves inching up the rich lists too as they will pocket some of the cash. "Yes, it has increased family liquidity," Mr. Forbes said in a statement.

The move comes as reports emerged that U2 has transferred some of its financial operations from Ireland to the Netherlands to reduce its tax liability.

A tax exemption for artists introduced by the late Charles Haughey was modified last year by the Republic's finance minister Brian Cowen, over concerns that super-rich rock-stars were benefiting excessively with some paying no tax. The minister introduced a cap on tax-free incomes of €250,000 ($321,000) in last year's budget.

"We cannot stand over a situation in which some high-earning tax residents, through the use of incentive reliefs, can reduce their taxable income to nil. This measure will help eliminate the phenomenon of tax-free millionaires and will increase the effective rate of tax on those with high income towards a minimum of 20%," said Mr. Cowen.

It is believed U2 could save around €15M ($19M) a year by moving some of its operations to the Netherlands from Ireland. The band earned around €217M ($275M) last year, and around one-third of this €72M ($91M) came from CD sales, and royalties from airplay and cover versions. Under the new tax arrangements, 50% tax exemption would apply to U2's royalty earnings, but the rest would be hit for 42% tax.

However, this tax would be almost zero-rated in the Netherlands, netting the $19M saving. U2 Limited, which owns all the U2 original master recordings, is now based there in Herengracht.

While politicians normally fall over themselves wishing to be associated with Ireland's most famous rock stars, the relocation of their royalties arm offshore to the Netherlands has attracted rare establishment criticism of Ireland's pop icon, who markets a radical edge, particularly on Third World issues, while remaining a pillar of Irish high society and one of the country's wealthiest individuals.

"It seems the Bono wants ordinary taxpayers to give more to the Third World while he opts out of paying the small proportion of his income that would have been involved in the changed tax rules for artists," the Irish Times reported an Irish government source as saying.

Center-right main opposition party Fine Gael - which Bono has championed in the past - said that the decision appeared to be made on hard-headed business grounds rather than any other reasons.

The Labor Party however said it was disappointing that while U2 continued to benefit from tax-free breaks over the years as workers paid high rates of tax, they were not now prepared to pay what would be lower rates than apply to ordinary tax-payers.

Commenting that rich people like rock-stars can avail of other tax-relief mechanisms such as property investments, the party's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said that it was difficult to make a case for Ireland to contribute more to Third World Aid if Bono, who supports such a move, was not prepared to pay his "fair share of tax in what is a low tax country."