Investing

Cramer's TheStreet.com TV Features; Would He Consider a Sirius Deal?

Stock Tickers: PFE, UNH, JNJ, MO, BAC, AMGN, DNA, DGX, WLP, TSCM, SIRI, XMSR

Well, here we go, Cramer is really switching out of Radio as we already knew to go TheStreet.com TV and he has been doing this.  In today’s 12/1/06 he comments as follows (paraphrasing, not verbatim):

Cramer said the negative extremism from a soft to a hard landing is one he isn’t buying into, he doesn’t believe it.  He’d load the boat on Healthcare, but he hates Pfizer (PFE) and yesterday he said the street was just being fooled into the good news camp so to speak, but w/ United Health (UNH) hitting $50 when their ex-CEO could even be facing jail that means the good guys are going higher and J&J (JNJ) going to $70 by year end.

Cramer said everyone worrying about the long bond yield so low down to 4.40% just means the short end is going to 4% or 3 3/4%…He notes, do you want to be in Altria (MO) or Bank of America (BAC) at a 4% yield or you want to be in cash, plus the 3.75% will be taxed to the max.

Why people are focusing on the weak economy is beyond him.  If you think it is a freak out then go buy gold; He has seen this all before and knows how it ends.

CONJECTURE

Please note that Cramer has been making strong healthcare comments this week and has been eseentially doing a strong set-up in the sector for about 2 weeks or so.  Some of his recent healthcare names he’s been steadily bullish on and will probably continue being that way on (that is my opinion anyway) are Amgen (AMGN), Genentech (DNA), Wellpoint (WLP), and Quest Diagnostics (DGX).  His call on DNA is an older one and he hasn’t noted it in a while.

Anyway, this is the new action out of TheStreet.com (TSCM) to go in and lock-up the time and missed revenues themselves instead of giving them mostly to the radio stations.

A THOUGHT ON "WHAT ELSE: COULD BE NEXT

This is pure speculation, but I really think something could be in the works with Sirius (SIRI).  As his as Cramer is already on Sirius (SIRI) I really wouldn’t be shocked at all if there is a new weekend evaluation "special" or something of the ilk or at least more guest appearances around the Sirius platform.  He already has the MAD MONEY and STOP TRADING segments on Sirius because of their distribution pact with CNBC that is currently on.  The catch is that XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) also has CNBC as one of their channels.   Cramer talks up Sirius as the better of the two, so why wouldn’t he?  So if he did a new deal (without knowing the lock-up terms he has with MAD MONEY) it would not be an all Cramer or anything, it would be as "special guest appearances" so it didn’t impact any current contracts (once again, not knowing the contractual details).  Just because TheStreet.com said earlier this week that DEC 1 (today) is his last nationally syndicated radio show of "RealMoney with Jim Cramer" does not mean that other deals are out of the realm of possibilities.  After all, if it helps TheStreet.com (TSCM) then they’ll go for it.  The only true wild card is if he’d actually go for it himself.  Even if he was pressured to do it he is strong enough and entrenched enough to say no. Just this week there were media reports that Sirius was considering some more content deals for live TV service.  Cramer and Karmazin already get along well, or if not the do one hell of a job cloaking that they do not.

Ok, so I am telling you once again that my last paragraph is pure speculation.  It may not happen at all and if this doesn’t come true I already can see the venomous waves of email about being a biased Cramerite or worse.  In short, I am actually a pure neutralite on Cramer and I know some traders who have made a lot betting with him and others that make money fading his feature stock picks.  As far as more reasoning for thinking a deal is possible is that Cramer was having to waste a severe amount of time on that radio show and now he can just focus on TheStreet.com and his CNBC arrangements plus whatever extra avenues he is willing to do with TheStreet.com. He already has made his big dough so a bit of extra cash won’t matter to him (but the exposure might).  But this would be yet one more platform for him to promote his platform and possibly draw more customers for the satellite radio.  Cramer already does special appearances here and there on many media properties, so pondering this on something more formal isn’t exactly a re-working of the wheel.  You can decide for yourself.

Jon C. Ogg
December 1, 2006

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own any securities of the companies mentioned in this report.

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