Warren Buffett wants to hire up to four investment managers, give them some $5 billion (€3.67 billion) each and see how they perform in a financial shoot-out to pick his successor as investment chief at Berkshire Hathaway.

Speaking to 27,000 investors gathered in his native Omaha for Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday, the "Sage of Omaha" said he had received more than 600 applications since beginning the search in February.

"We are looking for one or more. I don't think it's impossible we could find three or four and . . . give them a chunk of money - $2 billion, $3 billion, $5 billion - and have them manage it for some time," he said in a six-hour session of questions and answers. The world's second-richest man has said he does not want to retire.

However, uncertainty over who will succeed the 76-year-old investor upon his death has weighed on the share price of Berkshire, a US insurance-to-clothing conglomerate built by Mr Buffett's clever deal-making.

During the meeting, Mr Buffett repeated warnings about the use of leverage and derivatives and criticised the "electronic herd" of hedge fund managers, saying their fast trades in and out of assets were a "fool's game".

Asked about the US newspaper industry, Mr Buffett indirectly defended the dual-share structure used by the Bancroft family to control Dow Jones, the media group under siege by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Talking about a similar scheme at The New York Times, he said: "The woes of the newspaper business are not connected with the difference in holding structure at the Times or other places . . . The newspaper business has just got a lot tougher." - (Financial Times service)