Charity Auction Raises $2.1 Million for Lunch With Warren Buffett

Oil might not be in a bubble, but the cult of Warren Buffett and value investors might be:

A lunch date with billionaire investor Warren Buffett was sold to a Chinese hedge-fund manager yesterday for more than $2.1 million during an online auction, more than tripling last year's record of $650,100.

Zhao Danyang, who manages the Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund in Shenzhen, won the auction by bidding $2,110,100, said Denise Lamott, a spokeswoman for Glide Foundation. Glide, a San Francisco charity, will receive all proceeds from the auction. Bloomberg

The winner of the inaugural auction in the year 2000 paid a mere $25,000, and the quarter million dollars Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn paid in 2003 now looks like a bargain. But this reminds of the spring of 2000, when the Napa Valley Wine Auction was overrun with millionaires from Cisco Systems, and a 6-liter bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet sold for $500,000. That was the high water mark for the auction, and marked a peak in Silicon Valley's fortunes as well.

Ponying up the big bucks for an auction is admirable, but value managers are proving to be all too human, as the recent performance of Bill Miller and Whitney Tilson, who are down roughly 36% and 27% over the trailing twelve months (in at least one fund), shows.

Doug Kass, who recently made a controversial short call on the shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A-NYSE) might agree. His call was well timed, and the stock is off roughly 10% since. But value managers and the style are as revered as growth was in 1999/2000, which seems to be lost on the most ardent fans of value investing, many of which jumped on the bandwagon well into the recent outperformance cycle against growth.

Of course, I offer my hearty congratulations to the Glide Foundation, who will no doubt put the money to good use. Anyone wishing to meet yours truly for a falafel on the corner of 47th/Park Avenue is invited to send my an email, and don’t worry, I won’t ask you to match Zhao Danyang’s donation.

But I might ask you to help to consider donating to Lead the Way.

The Lead The Way Fund, Inc. was created in honor of Sgt. James J. Regan who was killed in Iraq while serving with Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Lead the Way’s annual golf outing will be held September 18, 2008 at Plandome Country Club. Value, growth and even shorts sellers are welcome.
_________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________
Buffett Has $2.1 Million Lunch Date With Hedge-Fund Manager
Bloomberg

Comments:

<< Back to main