Buffet: Charity auction no recruiting tool

It's true that Warren Buffett hired the hedge fund manager who won the last two private lunches with him that are part of an annual auction, but he doesn't expect the event to become a recruiting tool.

Rather, the billionaire chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway says it's miraculous that he found one of Berkshire's two new investment managers through the lunch. He offered Ted Weschler a job after he'd paid nearly $5.3 million over two years to dine with Buffett.

"We're perfectly situated now in respect to money managers," Buffett said. Besides Weschler, Buffett has also hired Todd Combs to eventually oversee the company's investments when the 81-year-old Buffett is gone.

Buffett said he just hopes the 13th annual online auction will again raise a significant amount of money for the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

Bidding began last night on eBay and continues into Friday evening. Most of the big bids tend to arrive late in the auction. The previous four winning bids have all exceeded $2 million, with new records set every year. Last year, Weschler paid $2.6 million. "It's gone way, way, way beyond my expectations," Buffett said.

At the lunch, Buffett will spend several hours discussing whatever it is the winner would like to talk about, traditionally at New York's Smith and Wollensky steak house. -- AP