Buffett’s Taiwan admirer Liang secures lunch bid

Liang, 34, who was outbid by US$100 in the final minutes of last year’s annual charity auction, said he will lunch with the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman next month after pledging to make a donation for an undisclosed amount.

“We’ve been waiting for this for nine years,” Liang, who will be accompanied by colleagues from his Olympic Marketing Training Consultancy, said by telephone from Shanghai. “It’s worth it to have lunch with the world’s best.”

Buffett, 76, the world’s third richest man, typically spends 2 1/2 to three hours discussing anything except specific stocks with the auction winner and seven guests at a New York steakhouse.

Bidding in this year’s online auction, which ends Friday, reached US$265,100 on June 26 — less than half the US$620,100 record set in 2006 by California investor Yongping Duan.

Liang, co-author of a book called “Surpass Buffett,” said he had expected to recover the cost of last year’s bid through speeches, classes and a book called “A US$620,000 Lunch.” His company runs motivational and training courses with titles such as “Learn from the World’s Best.”

Buffett is known as the “Sage of Omaha” by admirers for transforming Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile manufacturer into a US$165 billion holding company by acquiring out-of favor securities and businesses in dozens of industries. He was the world’s second-richest man for seven years until he was displaced by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the Forbes magazine Web site reported in April.

Lunch secrets?

Liang, who didn’t bid in this year’s auction, overcame adolescent depression and two suicide attempts to start Olympic Marketing, according to a biography posted on the consultant’s Web site. The company had NT$300 million (US$9.1 million) in revenue last year, spokesman Jack Chen said.

Buffett offers his time to benefit the San Francisco-based Glide Foundation, where his late wife Susan volunteered. Since 2003, when San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. took over the bidding from a live auctioneer, the lunches have raised US$1.4 million for Glide. This is the eighth annual auction.

“Why waste the money bidding for lunch with Buffett,” said Michael On, who looks after the equivalent of US$100 million as managing director at Beyond Asset Management Co. in Taipei and has written two books on Buffett’s value-investing style. “He isn’t going to share any secrets with you.”

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