Cramer’s Second Defensive Telecom: Alltel, As A Takeover Candidate (AT)

Posted: May 1, 2007 at 5:23 pm

Cramer made another defensive pick on telecom stocks after seeing weak retailers, weak autos, and even weaker housing.  His first pick was Verizon (VZ-NYSE) over AT&T (T-NYSE), but his second defensive stock in telecom land is Alltel (AT-NYSE).  Cramer thinks this wireless telecom play could be acquired.  Cramer didn’t think this would be a winner until going over the wireless comments out of Verizon and AT&T, particularly since this has the rural telecom advantage.  Cramer thinks that Sprint (S-NYSE) could acquire it (even though Sprint could be acquired by AT&T or Verizon if the stock falls too hard).  Cramer also noted that the WSJ discussed merger speculation in the sector.  Any of the major telco’s could decide that Alltel is cheaper to just buy than to try to build.  In the recent press release and conference call management refused to address its strategic review, and Cramer thinks that it is close to a deal.  He likes the fundamentals of the stock so he is not just speculating only a buyout.

Jon C. Ogg
May 1, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Read more: Cramer, Mergers and Buy Outs, Telecom
    • Featured Article:

    The 15 CEOs Who Should Be Paid $1 A Year

    Lee Iacocca, Chrysler’s CEO in 1979, worked for $1 a year while his company paid back taxpayers $1.2 billion in loan guarantees. Edward Liddy, former CEO of Allstate (ALL) was paid $1 a year when he stepped in to run the crumbling AIG (AIG) as the request of Henry Paulson, who was Treasury Secretary at [...]

    Read Full Story »
    Pages: 1 2 3 4