Lunch with a billionaire...

[Space-Cowboy]

Warren Buffett lunch sells for record $650,100

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bidder agreed to pay $650,100 to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett, surpassing last year's record for the annual charity auction.

Mohnish Pabrai, an Irvine, California-based investor who models his investment style on Buffett's, won the right to dine with the 76-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The five-day online auction concluded on Friday night on eBay Inc.'s Web site.

It was Pabrai's fifth year of bidding but the first time he won. The top bid surged nearly $250,000 in the final hour.

"He has had a major influence on the way I've invested, and also on the way I give back," Pabrai, 43, said in an interview. "To the extent societal rules or the wiring of your brains make it easy to acquire a lot of assets, then to the extent you can, you should try to improve the world."

A year ago, Buffett pledged most of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. Forbes magazine in March estimated his net worth at $52 billion.

Pabrai invests more than $600 million at Pabrai Investment Funds, including $50 million in Berkshire stock. He said Guy Spier, a friend who runs the Aquamarine LLC hedge fund, funded about one-third of his winning bid.

The lunch for up to seven people will be held at a Manhattan steakhouse run by Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc. Pabrai plans to take his wife and two children, and Spier and his wife.

Auction proceeds will benefit the Glide Foundation, a non-profit group in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that helps serve poor and homeless people.

Buffett began donating the lunches in 2000, after his wife Susan introduced him to Glide, its affiliated church, and the Rev. Cecil Williams, who runs both.

The auctions were conducted live for three years, and have raised some $2.07 million for Glide since moving to the Web in 2003. Glide's annual budget is about $12 million.

Last year's winner, Yongping Duan, a Palo Alto, California investor, bid $620,100 to dine with Buffett.

Buffett has since 1965 transformed Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire from a failing textile maker into a conglomerate with more than 70 businesses ranging from insurance to ice cream to underwear, and a market value exceeding $168 billion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070630/...ffett_lunch_dc

[khanvict]

'twas a charity auction. the more the merrier.

[sarb]

i rather have lunch with a buddy for the split cost of pizza and drinks

[.AK.]

Originally Posted by sarb

i rather have lunch with a buddy for the split cost of pizza and drinks

i wouldnt mind paying 650g's to have lunch with someone who's business model i have used to earn upwards of 650 millions

[sarb]

Originally Posted by .AK.

i wouldnt mind paying 650g's to have lunch with someone who's business model i have used to earn upwards of 650 millions

i guess if thats what your after

i kinda lost the mentality of "omg omg i want to be super rich" when i was like 17 lol

[.AK.]

Originally Posted by sarb

i guess if thats what your after

i kinda lost the mentality of "omg omg i want to be super rich" when i was like 17 lol

i guess so
ive personally seen a few people go from nothing to filty rich by their own hard work so i still got the sprit
im dead broke tho

so far

[sarb]

Originally Posted by .AK.

i guess so
ive personally seen a few people go from nothing to filty rich by their own hard work so i still got the sprit
im dead broke tho

so far

i guess if you the aspiration to be come filty rich, then it can happen

[.AK.]

Originally Posted by sarb

i guess if you the aspiration to be come filty rich, then it can happen

i'll buy you that car in your sig once im rich

[sarb]

Originally Posted by .AK.

i'll buy you that car in your sig once im rich

lol thanks

[Aurovon]

That's crunk.

It better be a buffet.

[taleb]

Originally Posted by sarb

i guess if you the aspiration to be come filty rich, then it can happen

often these people's ambitions aren't to become "rich" to begin with

it depends really, the rags to riches thing is quite rare

more often, the billionaires of this world are merely increasing their families existing wealth

[OPTIONS]

thats funny this guy happens to be a family friend.

[Aurovon]

Originally Posted by OPTIONS

thats funny this guy happens to be a family friend.

Hahhaha no shit!

[taleb]

Originally Posted by Aurovon

That's crunk.

It better be a buffet.

Lol,

I think people are missing the point - The food is irrelevant

This is an oppurtunity for 1 on 1 time with the 2nd richest man in this world, how much is that worth ??

& you're giving the money to charity, which most of these new-age billionaire philantrophists very often do

why not get something out of it? besides a tasty meal

[PrOfFaSeE]

Originally Posted by sarb

i rather have lunch with a buddy for the split cost of pizza and drinks

yeah me too

if my buddy was a pornstar (female)