Wanted: Short seller to take on Warren Buffett

If you dislike Berkshire Hathaway - really dislike it, enough to put your money where your mouth is - Warren Buffett would like to hear from you.

Buffett, in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders on Friday, said he is looking for a "credentialed bear" on Berkshire to join a panel of analysts that will question him at this year's annual meeting in Omaha in May.

Preferably, Buffett wrote, that bear would be short Berkshire shares, meaning they have borrowed and sold the stock betting the price will fall.

"Not yet having a bear identified, we would like to hear from applicants. The only requirement is that you be an investment professional and negative on Berkshire," Buffett wrote.

About 1 percent of the float on Berkshire's widely-held Class B stock is sold short, according to New York Stock Exchange data.

The analyst panel was a new innovation at Berkshire's 2012 analyst meeting, though in that instance it was comprised of three sell-side insurance analysts.

This year the panel will have one insurance analyst, Cliff Gallant of Nomura Securities; one investor, Jonathan Brandt of Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb; and the bear.

(Reporting By Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Bernard Orr)