McGuinness also seems to have accomplished a final rare feat in the management racket: a peaceful transfer of power. As dramatic as the headlines were, the substance is a mild and seamless shift. McGuinness and Bono have known Oseary, 41, for two decades, and Oseary talks about the two men as mentors and friends, calling the transition “a loving passing of the baton.”
“I’m really humbled to be invited into the U2 family,” Oseary says. “It’s really a family business, a family-owned brotherhood.”
If Oseary, who’s based in Los Angeles, represents a significant change, it might be a shift in the center of gravity to the West Coast. “That coast is becoming the place where everything starts and happens,” Edge says. “All the new tech companies, Guy is very immersed in that. We’re well-placed to start integrating new opportunities to meet our fans and to do cool things.”
Oseary says, “L.A. is a lot closer to Silicon Valley than New York, Dublin or London. We launched the Mandela music through our Facebook relationship. We’re working with YouTube on the next video. We’re working with a lot of companies on functionality and innovation. That being said, there’s innovation in other places. SoundCloud’s in Berlin and Spotify’s from Stockholm.”
Back at Finnegan’s pub, Bono had his sights on the same targets, both for the band’s purposes and for his ONE campaign and its (RED) division, which has raised more than $215 million to fight AIDS in Africa. “We’ve been talking to Bob Iger [chairman/CEO of the Walt Disney Co.] and we haven’t yet found a way, but that would be the ultimate company for me to get in with us in the (RED) boat. He’s like the president of California, isn’t he?”