Lunch with billionaire Buffett is discounted by nearly $1 million

A bidder has won the right to have lunch with legendary investor and billionaire Warren Buffett, paying $2.68 million for the special lunch date.

Billionaire Warren Buffett - Photo: AP/Bloomberg.

The identity of the winner of the auction, which ended Friday on eBay, remains unknown. The final price was nearly $1 million less than last year’s approximately $3.46 million. The price for the 2016 Buffett lunch repeated a previous record.

Just like in previous years, the winner will be able to bring seven friends to dine with the “Oracle of Omaha” at the famous Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York.

As usual, all proceeds from this annual auction will go to the San Francisco-based charity Glide, which provides free meals to the poor, helps abused women and children, and supports drug addiction recovery. Buffett's late first wife, Susan, was an active volunteer for this organization.

The five-day auction attracted 41 bidders, eBay said, with the highest bid coming in the final seconds before the auction ended.

The lunch auction has become an annual fixture for Buffett, raising more than $26 million for Glide since 2000.

Among those who have won the right to lunch with Buffett are hedge fund managers David Einhorn and Ted Weschler, both of whom have joined Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to help manage his investments. The winner of last year's auction remains anonymous.

Billionaire Buffett is always on the list of the richest people in the world. He is the Chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire.

Thanks to his unmatched acumen in stock investing and business acquisition, Buffett has transformed Berkshire from a “half-dead” textile factory into a corporation with a market capitalization of 419 billion USD, operating in many fields, from energy, insurance, to retail and manufacturing.

Many people are willing to spend millions of dollars to have an appointment with Buffett, because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to have Buffett share his experience in investment activities.

According to Vneconomy