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NEW YORK: An anonymous fan of Warren Buffett agreed to pay $2,679,001 at an online charity auction to have lunch with the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The winning bid came in the closing seconds of the five-day eBay auction, which drew 41 bids before ending on Friday night. It was lower than the record $3,456,789 bid in similar auctions in 2012 and 2016.
Money will go to Glide, a San Francisco charity that provides food, health care and other services to the homeless, the impoverished, and people struggling with substance abuse. The successful bidder and up to seven friends will dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steak house in Manhattan. All topics are fair game apart from where Buffett will invest next. Buffett has held 18 annual auctions for Glide, raising about $26.3 million.
He became involved with Glide after his first wife, Susan, became a volunteer, prior to her death in 2004. “We are very delighted and proud that Mr. Buffett has for years made sure that he participates,” the Rev. Cecil Williams, 87, co-founder of Glide and pastor since 1963 of the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, said after the auction ended.
Contributions have a “tremendous impact” on people who find themselves “really unable to come to grips with the issue of poverty in urban America,” Williams said. Glide uses its $18 million annual budget to provide more than 750,000 free meals, emergency shelter for 8,500 people, 2,600 HIV and Hepatitis C tests, and day care and after-school programs for nearly 450 children.
Buffett, 86, is the world’s fourth-richest person, worth $76.2 billion according to Forbes magazine. He is donating virtually all of his fortune to charity. Past auction winners have included hedge fund manager Ted Weschler, who paid a combined $5.25 million to win two auctions. He later became one of Buffett’s investing deputies, and along with fellow deputy Todd Combs is likely to oversee Berkshire’s stock investments after Buffett departs. Berkshire has more than 90 businesses in the insurance, energy, industrial, railroad, retail and other sectors.
Buffett owns about 18 percent of the $419 billion company. The lunches that fetched $3,456,789 remain the most expensive items sold on eBay where all proceeds went to charity. Bidding moved online in 2003.
According to Glide, these bidders have won its auctions: 2000: Pete Budlong, $25,000 2001: Jim Halperin and Scott Tilson, $20,000 2002: Jim Halperin and Scott Tilson, $25,000 2003: David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital, $250,100 2004: Jason Choo, Singapore, $202,100 2005: Anonymous, $351,100 2006: Yongping Duan, California, $620,100 2007: Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Harina Kapoor, $650,100 2008: Zhao Danyang, Pure Heart Asset Management, China, $2,110,100 2009: Courtenay Wolfe, Salida Capital, Canada, $1,680,300 2010: Ted Weschler, $2,626,311 2011: Ted Weschler, $2,626,411 2012: Anonymous, $3,456,789 2013: Anonymous, $1,000,100 2014: Andy Chua, Singapore, $2,166,766 2015: Zhu Ye, Dalian Zeus Entertainment Co, China, $2,345,678 2016: Anonymous, $3,456,789 2017: Anonymous, $2,679,001.