Investing

Tim Cook Charity Lunch Price Hits $165,000

Bidders get a shot at a lunch with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook — at Apple’s headquarters. To up the ante, the winner bidder gets “2 VIP passes to an Apple keynote.” With 20 days of bidding left to go, the price for the package has reached $165,000, and it is bound to go higher.

Charitybuzz, which is conducting the auction, funnels money to hundreds of charities that it deems worthy. These include the American Cancer Association and the Tribeca Film Institute. It raises the money via auctions of meals and other fun events with Fortune 500 CEOs and Hollywood stars. A recent auction will put the winner on the set of successful television show “Ray Donovan.”

The organization describes itself this way: “Charitybuzz is the place to find extraordinary experiences and luxuries to benefit remarkable charities making an impact.”

Charitybuzz put its estimated value of the Cook lunch at $100,000. Auctions for lunches with Warren Buffett have gone for nearly $1 million. Cook as entered the stratosphere where Buffett operates, on the covers of magazines, on CNBC and at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE: BRK-A) annual meeting in Omaha.

Cook has changed a lot of things in American business. He proved a new CEO can come out from the shadow of a very famous founder. He has been courageous enough to announce he is “proud to be gay.” He was named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year for 2014. He runs the most profitable company in the United States and the one with the largest market cap.

Two years ago, lunch with Cook would not have sold for $165,000. It might not have gone for that a year ago.

The Cook lunch will go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. All a bidder has to do is enter a credit card number and prepare to bid higher and higher every day.

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