Bids in Charter's auction for Internet service "for life" have topped $40,000, according to the company's website. It's like a train wreck we've been unable to look away from for the past few weeks: the poorly ranked cable company, mired in $19 billion in debt, has buried fine print in the auction details stating the winner is owed nothing if the company is purchased after three years, and only a portion of their bid if Charter's bought in the next 1 or 2. Some good news however: Charter now says they'll be donating the proceeds of the auction to Habitat For Humanity:Bidders aren't being philanthropic though, as they didn't know the proceeds would be donated (meaning some really think the service is worth $40k). This was the only archived press release in which Charter even mentioned the auction, and the charity was never mentioned on either the website or the auction FAQ (update: a mention of Habitat was added several hours after this article was written, and weeks after countless people bid tens of thousands of dollars).

In other words, we're not sure if it was their intent to donate these proceeds all along -- or if marketing decided to donate the proceeds to charity after people started noticing the absolutely absurd bid totals (we'd like to assume the former). Either way, Habitat for Humanity will win big, even if the winning bidder does not.