In June 2010, billionaire investor Warren Buffett held his annual online charity auction, donating a 2-hour lunch meeting with himself at the New York steakhouse Smith & Wollensky. The event raises money for a San Francisco charity that provides meals for the homeless. This year, the bidding went to a record $2.63 million. The winning bidder, who remains anonymous, is allowed to bring along seven guests for the lunch meeting with the world’s third richest man. Warren Buffet’s assets are worth an estimated $47 billion. He built his fortune through the investment company Berkshire Hathaway, which used to focus on investing in publicly quoted stocks but now buys whole companies in a diverse range of businesses. The value of a Berkshire Hathaway share is the highest on the New York Stock Exchange, with each share in the company valued at over $100,000.
In April 2010, the high-street shoe retailer Faith went into administration with 1,800 jobs under threat. A victim of the recession, Faith had seen falling sales despite its popularity with the 15–35-year-old female segment of the market. The business first had difficulties in 2008 and was seized by Barclays bank and sold on. Despite a restructuring, the business still had sizeable debts and had over-borrowed, making it hard for the company to meet its loan repayments once the economy went into recession. Along with other independent shoe shops, the company also faced increasing competition from retailers such as Primark, Tesco and TopShop. Efforts to find a potential buyer for this well-known brand have met with little success so far.
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