Is a lunch with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s CEO Tim Cook worth $330 million? Would he answer his real thoughts about activist investors and building in company in the shadow of Steve Jobs?
These questions could soon be answered, as a charity auction hosted by the web site CharityBuzz.
Donating $330,000 to have lunch
CharityBuzz does not allow individuals to see the final bid, according to the web site AppleInsider, but one of their readers snapped a screenshot of the page one second before the conclusion, showing a current bid of $330,001.00.
Call me… maybe
According to the site, Tim’s a pretty busy guy: scheduling could take up to a year based on Cook’s availability. (Friend: “Tim let’s get some drinks after work.” Tim: “Okay, how about the 17th… of 2015. I’m kind of busy.”)
Cook’s availability is not the only restriction. Cook will spend one hour of his time with the person for the event, and the “winner” of the auction will have one hour with Cook and a friend. All proceeds go to the real “winners,” a charity.
Apple: Cook’s one hour of time down close to 50% year over year
On the downside, Cook’s $330,000 take sounds good, but it pales in comparison to the $610,000 he garnered last year. That’s pretty severe deflation, but could also reflect a tech giant moving from an exciting innovator, a high flying momentum player, to a more “traditional” tech stock. Not so much looking to change the world as make next quarter’s earnings look good.
Considering both auctions, Cook has raised just under $1 million to benefit the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. That’s a pretty cool charity. Can Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) keep its “cool” brand as it goes corporate to the establishment side of the scale? That remains to be seen.
