Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in the world, said he's willing to make three more lunch dates -- at US$250,000 each -- to raise more than US$1 million for a San Francisco charity.
Two, and possibly as many as three additional companies, want to match the winning bid for a date with the billionaire that was auctioned last week on EBay Inc's Web site, the head of the charity said.
Buffett, the chairman of Berk-shire Hathaway Inc, said he was pleased.
"There are three more takers, I hear," Buffett told Bloomberg News on Sunday, while attending the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.
"That's great," he said.
On Friday, Greenlight Capital Inc's David Einhorn, one of the founders of the New York-based investment-management firm, placed the original winning US$250,100 bid in the EBay auction, topping 140 other offers.
Proceeds from the luncheons will go to the Glide Foundation, a non-profit group that provides programs for about 30,000 homeless and needy people. Buffett became involved with Glide after his wife introduced him to the Reverend Cecil Williams, the head of the foundation, four years ago.
Three other companies contacted Williams after the auction, agreeing to match Einhorn's bid for a similar dining experience with Buffett, Williams said on Sunday in a telephone interview from Glide's headquarters.
Williams declined to identify the companies, two of which he said have confirmed they will match the bid and one that is considering it. The companies had participated in the auction, yet fell short of the winning bid.
Williams contacted Einhorn, who agreed to allow the matching donations on the condition that Buffett play bridge with him.
"Oh, my God, it's incredible," Williams said. "It's been a hard way to go sometimes, but we've always pulled it off until two or three years ago when the bottom fell out, as it did for most people."
Glide raised less than US$33,000 annually from the Buffett auction in the past three years.
Einhorn won a lunch for eight people in New York between May 5 and May 14, although an earlier appointment can be arranged in Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire is based.
Williams said the other lunches would likely be held in Omaha under similar circumstances.
"I am thrilled that these other bidders saw the value of this gift for the benefit of the homeless and decided to match it," Einhorn said in a statement provided by Abernathy MacGregor Group Inc, which handles public relations for Greenlight.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique