Zhongxin Finance, June 19th (Gong Hongyu) After 5 days and 43 rounds of fierce bidding, the price increased from US$999,999 to US$19,000,100 (approximately RMB 128 million), at 22:30 on the 17th Eastern Time, 2022 The dust has finally settled on Buffett's lunch auction.
At the end of the auction, two buyers competed fiercely.
At one point, a buyer who started with the letter j had a big lead and kept raising his bid.
But at the last minute, the W buyer reversed by a narrow $100 advantage and took the lunch.
At present, the personal information of the buyers has not been disclosed.
One can't help but ask, a group of top rich people throwing tens of millions of dollars just for a meal of steak and chips?
What's the magic of Buffett's lunch?
How are those former bidders doing now?
Image source: eBay official website.
The legend of the "Last Lunch" of the stock god is about to end
The reason why this round of auctions has attracted much attention is not only because it was re-held after two years due to the disruption of the epidemic, but also because 2022 will be the last Buffett charity lunch auction.
According to the previous introduction on the official website of the Glide Foundation, as the last luncheon, the winner of the auction will be able to bring seven guests to lunch with Buffett at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in Manhattan.
Interestingly, compared to the sky-high price of $19 million, the restaurant sells for about $70 for a 26-ounce prime rib steak.
It has been pointed out that Buffett chose this place only because it is a restaurant he frequents for "snacks".
According to the data, the first auction of Buffett's charity lunch began in 2000 and has been held for 20 consecutive times as of 2019.
The auction grew out of the idea of Buffett's late first wife, Susan Thompson, who had long maintained a close collaboration with the Glide Foundation.
For more than 50 years, the Glade Foundation has provided hot meals, medical care and shelter, child care and family services to those in need.
At the beginning of the auction, the price of Buffett's lunch was relatively "close to the people", only $20,000 to $25,000.
It wasn't until 2003, when the auction was publicly held on eBay for the first time, that the sale price jumped tenfold to $250,000.
In the following ten years, the auction price of the luncheon has risen steadily. In 2008, it exceeded one million US dollars for the first time. Since then, the winning bid amount has exceeded 1 million US dollars, and reached a high value of 4.57 million US dollars in 2019.
In fact, behind the sky-high lunch, what interests everyone is not the food, but the people who eat it.
Buffett, the former richest man in the world, has been investing in stocks since he was 11 years old. He is known as the "stock god" by the public because of his unique sense of the capital market.
In 2022, the wealth of giants such as Musk, Bezos, and Bill Gates has shrunk due to turbulence such as worsening inflation, international conflicts, and energy crises.
However, Buffett has become a "thriving" big winner with his prediction of rising oil prices.
According to the Forbes Rich List released in April 2022, Buffett is the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $100 billion.
Thanks to the halo of "stock god", the luncheon is not only regarded by business elites as an opportunity to learn and communicate with bigwigs, but also an excellent opportunity to prove their financial resources and even make headlines.
In the past 20 years, dozens of legends from different countries and industries have competed to successfully "dine" with Buffett.
File photo: Warren Buffett.
Image source: CFP Vision China
Where have the former bidders gone?
According to the data, the bidders are mostly hedge fund managers, investment fund group partners, wealth management company CEOs, and founders of emerging virtual currencies.
For example, the winner of the 2003 lunch auction, hedge fund manager David Eindhoven, and investment manager Ted Whischler, who has successfully bid for two consecutive years, are still active in the investment world.
The former was shocked by the investment operation of Lehman Brothers, and the world capital market was shaken; the latter was successfully entered into Buffett's company and became Buffett's successor candidate because of Buffett's suggestion at lunch.
In addition, there are also 4 Chinese who have photographed Buffett's lunch, namely Duan Yongping, founder of BBK, Zhao Danyang, fund manager, Zhu Ye, chairman of Tianshen Entertainment, and Justin Sun, founder of TRON.
In 2006, Xiaobawang and Duan Yongping, the founder of BBK, photographed the luncheon for $620,000.
At that time, he said that his previous success in investing in stocks was due to his understanding of Buffett's philosophy, and he took the lunch to report his learning results to Buffett and to do charity.
Years after lunch, Duan Yongping is still active in the investment field, sharing his views from time to time.
And Huang Zheng, who was invited by Duan Yongping to have dinner together, soon left Google to start a business, and many years later founded Pinduoduo.
Zhao Danyang, a securities investor who won the lunch opportunity in 2008, recommended Buffett his stocks at the dinner table.
Subsequently, the news was spread, the stock skyrocketed for several days, and Zhao Danyang earned tens of millions of dollars.
In 2015, Zhu Ye was late for an interview at lunch, but he called Buffett himself "very humorous".
Over dinner, he and Buffett talked about his company.
After the meal, the share price of Tianshen Entertainment rose by more than 90%, and photos of Zhu Ye, his wife, friends and Buffett chatting and laughing also rushed to the headlines of major media.
The most dramatic was Justin Sun's 2019 auction of lunch for a record-breaking $4.57 million.
Later, he claimed that he was unable to attend the appointment due to sudden kidney stone admission, and was accused by netizens of "putting stock god pigeons", excessive marketing and hype.
Charity or tax avoidance?
Buffett's lunch is a notoriously "charitable" luncheon, and Buffett himself is a recognized philanthropist.
According to public reports, on June 14, 2022, Buffett donated approximately 14.4 million Berkshire Class B shares to institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he also previously donated to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has donated up to $33 billion.
Not only that, Buffett himself is also an advocate of the concept of "naked donation".
The news that he persuaded rich Chinese to donate naked once aroused heated discussions.
However, behind the generous charity, some people pointed out that Buffett's donation may be to avoid tax.
It is understood that in the United States, estates above $2.5 million are subject to a high percentage of estate taxes.
That is to say, if Buffett, who is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, wants his children to gain his huge wealth, he needs to give tens of billions of dollars to the United States. By donating to charities, only a small part of the money needs to be donated to charity every year, and the rest The managers of funds and institutions can freely dispose of them.
Still, Buffett's lunch is still widely regarded as a meal for the public good.
According to Glide’s official website, after the auction, the luncheon has raised a total of $53 million for the Glide Foundation, and the net proceeds from the lunch will be used for charity.
What do you think of Buffett's lunch?
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