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.