One thing that comes up frequently whenever you talk to people in Ireland is the level of influence that U2 frontman Bono has. Indeed, it turns out that he played a pivotal role in Facebook choosing the country’s capital city as its HQ for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Today at an event organised by IDA Ireland to coincide with the Dublin Web Summit, Facebook’s Director of User Operations for EMEA, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, Sonia Flynn discussed the story behind the company choosing Dublin. Apparently COO Sheryl Sandberg had Switzerland at the top of her list but her friend (and Facebook investor through his Elevation Partners fund between 2010 and 2013), Bono, persuaded her to consider Dublin.
Of course, a generous (and now partially under threat) taxation system helped alongside other factors, but according to Flynn, Facebook would probably have been in Switzerland instead of Dublin if it hadn’t have been for the intervention of the pop star.
Image Credit / Shutterstock
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