Doubts Quickly Extinguished at Buffett Annual Meeting

OMAHA, Neb. -- There's plenty of magic left in the Oracle of Omaha.

While Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A Quote) billionaire Chairman Warren Buffett may have lost some of his stock-picking magic, his mystical charm with shareholders remains as strong as ever. "This is more like a religious rally than a business meeting," said a newcomer from the British press about the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday in Omaha. "I've never seen anything quite like it," he added as Buffett was surrounded by a gaggle of adoring shareholders looking for photo ops before the meeting began.

On the eve of the annual meeting, shareholders gave hints that they were concerned about the future of Buffett's icon-like status in a market increasingly dominated by New Economy ideas. After all, Buffett himself called his 1999 performance "near failing" and Berkshire stock is underperforming the markets over a three-year period for the first time in its history. One might think that would prompt investors to use the annual meeting to pose some challenging questions to management. That's been the case at companies in which Buffett holds a significant stake: Executives at Coca-Cola (KO Quote), Gillette (G Quote) and Disney (DIS Quote) have all been peppered with questions over plans to reverse the erosion of shareholder value. ...