The top bid to dine with the chairman of the
conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc <BRKa.N> was $200,100 at 12
p.m. EDT on Monday, but will likely surge by the time the auction on
eBay <EBAY.O> ends on Friday night.
Winning bids have reached seven figures every year
since 2008, with the record $3,456,789 offer submitted anonymously in
2012. Last year’s winner paid $2,345,678.
Auction proceeds go to Glide, a charity in San
Francisco’s Tenderloin district that provides food, health care and
other services to people who are homeless, poor or struggling with
substance abuse. Buffett has raised about $20.2 million in 16 auctions
for Glide.
“Mr. Buffett has been just one of the most important
people in our work,” Rev. Cecil Williams, 86, Glide’s co-founder and a
pastor at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, told Reuters. “If
people didn’t respond to places like Glide, we would be in serious
trouble in urban America.”
Buffett, 85, is the world’s third richest person, worth
$66.8 billion, Forbes magazine said on Monday. He is donating virtually
all of his wealth to charity.
The auction was created by Buffett’s first wife, Susan,
and continued after her 2004 death. It began on Sunday night, and will
end at 10:30 p.m. EDT Friday.
The winner and up to seven friends can dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steak house in Manhattan.
Past winners have included David Einhorn, the
Greenlight Capital hedge fund manager, and Ted Weschler, now a portfolio
manager at Berkshire.
Bids for the private lunch have stayed high even as
Buffett’s visibility has grown over the years, including the first-ever
webcast of Berkshire’s annual meeting in April.
With a $17 million budget, Glide provides an estimated
750,000 free meals, 815,000 syringes, emergency shelter for 8,700
people, and day care and afterschool programs for 450 children each
year.
“I am proud to be part of something that has directly benefited so many people in need,” Buffett said in a statement.
Williams said Buffett talks with him a few times a
year, about Glide and whatever else is on their minds. “It is a
relationship that we have,” Williams said. “He’s very jovial, open and a
lot of fun, but he’s also very serious.”
According to Glide, the following are the winning bids in past 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
