据纽约本月20日消息，经过众多出版公司的激烈竞标，世界投资大亨沃伦·巴菲特传记的出版权最终归属兰多姆出版公司下属的班塔姆·德尔出版集团。据一名消息人士说，为了这本传记，出版社要支付700多万美元的稿费。

      这本传记暂名《雪球：沃伦·巴菲特如何聚集朋友、智慧和财富》(The Snowball: How Warren Buffett Collected Friends, Wisdom and Wealth)，作者是摩根士丹利公司前股票分析师爱丽丝·施罗德。此书计划于2008年出版。

      高达700多万美元的稿酬在美国出版业屈指可数。通用公司前CEO杰克·韦尔奇因撰写《杰克·韦尔奇自传》一书而得到710万美元的稿酬。另一位拿到天价稿费的则是美国前总统比尔·克林顿。据说，他的自传《我的生活》稿费在1000万到1200万美元。

     班塔姆·德尔出版集团19日发表声明说，这本被授权的自传将着重讲述巴菲特的商业战略。施罗德将通过她与巴菲特在一起度过的“数千个小时”以及“对巴菲特的相关文件、朋友与伙伴进行深入调查”后得到的资料为基础进行写作。

     现年75岁的巴菲特是美国伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的掌门人。他于1956年真正展开他的投资事业。目前，伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司已经成为世界上最大的上市公司之一，业务面十分广泛，包括保险、饮料、糖果、家具、餐饮和地毯等多家子公司，公司市值大约1000亿美元。在《福布斯》杂志的富翁排行榜上，巴菲特的个人资产约有440亿美元，排名世界第二。
   
     闲暇时，巴菲特常常像普通人一样穿着运动裤和运动衫。他长久以来一直喜欢吃汉堡和薯条，平时喜爱打桥牌和弹尤克里里琴(一种四弦琴)。
 

NEW YORK - A bidding war for an authorized biography of the "ideas" of billionaire Warren Buffett has been won by the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc.
 
Tentatively titled "The Snowball: How Warren Buffett Collected Friends, Wisdom and Wealth," the book is scheduled to come out in 2008. Several publishers were interested and a representative close to the deal said it was worth more than $7 million, although not as much as the reported $10 million to $12 million for former     President Clinton's "My Life." Former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch reportedly got $7.1 million for his best seller, "Jack: Straight From the Gut."

"The Snowball" will be written by Alice Schroeder, a former insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley, where she met Buffett. This marks the first time a book will be written with his cooperation, but the contract was negotiated with Schroeder.

"Our deal is with her. She is the author," Bantam president and publisher Irwyn Applebaum told The Associated Press Wednesday through spokeswoman Barbara Burg.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by Dell, the book will focus on Buffett's business strategies. It will be based on the "thousands of hours" Schroeder spent with Buffett and on "unprecedented access to his files, friends and associates."

The 75-year-old Buffett is considered of special interest both for his personal wealth, estimated by Forbes magazine at $40 billion, and his folksy style.

Buffett is known as the man who built a 1956 partnership of four relatives and three close friends into a holding company worth about $100 billion. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns insurance, soft drink, candy, furniture, restaurant and carpet firms.

Yet Buffett is also known to wear sweat pants and sweat shirts in his spare time. He is a longtime fan of hamburgers, french fries and Cherry Cokes, and enjoys bridge and playing the ukulele.