A tour of Bill Gates' mansion in Medina is going for a hefty price tag. The bid to tour his house (and have him guide you around) is up to $35,000. Last year, the tour sold for $8,600, the Seattle PI is reporting.
But before you run out to start bidding, it's only available to those who work at Microsoft as part of its annual charitable giving campaign. According to the Seattle PI, word slipped that the bidding was on the rise this year from Microsoft CIO Tony Scott at the Society for Information Management's SIMposium on Tuesday.
The Seattle PI is saying that employees can also bid to go on a run with CEO Steve Ballmer and the opportunity to buy the "World's Best Bologna Sandwich." But it's the tour of Gates' house that receives top billing every year. And for good reason--that thing is huge.
But all this talk of going on a tour of Bill Gates' house begs an important question: how much would you pay to talk a walk around Bill's house? Let us know in the comments below.
And just to start things off: $500. That's my limit.
Amazon.com's Kindle may be the most-popular e-reader on the market, but that doesn't mean everyone is happy with it.
Amazon announced earlier this week that it will, in fact, sell a Kindle version of "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown's latest novel, "The Lost Symbol." The book is slated for release on September 15.
(Credit:
Amazon.com)
The Kindle version of "The Lost Symbol" was in limbo since Amazon first placed the hardcover version on its site for preorder. Its publisher, Random House, was concerned with releasing a Kindle version on the same day as the hardcover version. The company reasoned that with such a low price ($9.99 on the Kindle) compared with the hardcover version, which Amazon is currently offering for $16.17, that Kindle sales would cannibalize hardcover sales.
Random House's issues set the stage for what could have been a major battle between Amazon and publishers. Dan Brown's book promises to be a bestseller the day it's released. Random House might have had some leverage.
But after entering into discussions with Amazon, Random House announced last week that it had approved a Kindle version.
"Now that all of our security and logistical issues surrounding the e-book of 'The Lost Symbol' have been resolved, the e-book will be released simultaneously with the hardcover on September 15," the publisher announced. It didn't elaborate on what those issues were.
... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
