A lunch date with the CEO of Apple is a fantasy many would put down the greenbacks for. For the second year in a row, a lunch date with Apple CEO Tim Cook was on the line, but the auction to raise money for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights saw nearly half as much win out than last year.
The "Auction 2.0" for Cook saw the winning bid bring in $330,000 for the time with the CEO, down from $610,000 a year ago. Many media sites have already headlined their stories as the winning bid being a "bargain."
The bidding ended on May 13, but shocked many for its low price tag, considering Cook had thrown in an invitation to an upcoming Apple event as part of the winning bid.
Media reports suggest that part of the reason that bidding didn't get as high as the previous year was that Charitybuzz, the website that ran the auction, had established a new credit card verification process that may have created some fear in the bidding war for Cook's time.
Even at half of last year's winning bid, Cook is light years ahead of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who has garnered just one bid for $3,500 with only eight days remaining, showing still how important Apple is to the technology sector.
As per the RFK Center, which promotes itself as aiming for "a just and peaceful world by partnering with human rights leaders, teaching social justice and advancing corporate responsibility."
Cook has long been a supporter of the RFK Center and is also on the media prowl in promoting the company's latest push into environmental sustainability and green technology at almost all its manufacturing sites.
Based on the auction, Cook and the winner will spend around one hour together at Apple's California headquarters on a "mutually agreed upon date."
While Apple will foot the costs of hosting the winner, airfare to California will not be supplied.
In promoting the auction, Cook also added the extra even bonus via his personal Twitter account:
Join me for lunch and advance human rights @rfkcenter.You can also be my VIP guest at an Apple event. https://t.co/02aONVPQM9 #RFKauction
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 10, 2014
Charitybuzz has not released the name of the victor to the public.
