Monday, 06/09/08
Posted 06/09/08,  10:39 pm ET

(Scroll down to see Jim's comments below)

 
 
Today's date:  Monday, 06/09/08

  Dow Jones: 12,280  + 70
  NASDAQ:   2,459   - 15
  S&P 500:   1,361   + 1
 
 
 
 
 
First Segment
 
 
Final Segment 1 Title: 'In Icahn We Trust'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s):

Motorola Inc. (MOT)

See MOT's official website here.

See the Yahoo! Finance profile for MOT here.


Yahoo! (YHOO)

See YHOO's official website here.

See the Yahoo! Finance profile for YHOO here.



See Final Segment 2, below...

 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Sudden:Death picks here...


.  .  .  .  .

JJC:    What I'm about to tell you... it's going to make me a little nauseous... But I'm saying it anyway, because I believe it could also make you more than a little money...

I think we could start buying... I'm recommending Motorola (MOT) and Yahoo! (YHOO)...

Before I say anything else, let me make one thing perfectly clear...  I hate these two stocks, MOT and YHOO, as much as a man can hate anything that, in the end, is just a piece of paper...

These two companies have spent years turning once-great franchises into laughing stocks...

They also have become experts at squandering opportunity after opportunity after opportunity...  Great brand names, a really fabulous pull... 

No... both YHOO and MOT have both earned the unique disgrace of having a CEO on the Mad Money Wall of Shame...

.  .  .  .  .


Knowing all that, why on earth am I calling both MOT and YHOO buys?... 

Have I finally snapped?...  Anyone who knows me knows that happened years ago...  No.  I'm calling both stocks buys, because I believe that, when it comes to stocks, one man can make a difference...

That's right...  A single individual can turn an abysmal failure, like MOT or YHOO, into a stock worth owning...

And that man's name is Carl Icahn...   

.  .  .  .  .

We know Icahn - who has accumulated huge stakes in both companies - he's been fighting with management, trying to get his own guys on the boards of MOT and YHOO, in order to arrest control away from the current slate of... complacent directors... at both companies, so that he can start to unlock value... This man knows how to unlock value.

What we haven't known is if he can pull it off... and now, I believe, he can...

Last week, I heard Icahn speak at a key, high-level, ultra-cool war room shin-dig, moderated by Cramer-fave, money manager and research director, Byron Wean who, by the way, is the only real gray beard that I trust... Icahn made what seemed to me like a compelling case for what he can do for both companies... and, given his recent track record... remember that mammoth win we had in BEA Systems Inc. (BEAS)?... I'm inclined to recommend that you piggyback off Icahn's efforts.

Piggybacking off Icahn is a proven strategy at this point. While he does the hard work of bullying management into doing things that sends their stock higher, you historically just have to own that stock, and sit on your hands to benefit from all the work that Carl does. We did it in BEA... that's the most prominent one, because I recommended it on the show, and he went and got active...

We love what he did with Kerr-McGee... It was announced that Icahn owned Kerr-McGee on February 18th of 2005... the stock was at $33... If you bought it, you then made 107%... Kerr-McGee was then bought by Anadarko Petroleum (APC) on August 10th of 2006... How much do we like APC?... We've had all the CEOs of the natural gas companies on... we've encouraged them.

Another success story was Time Warner (TWX)... Icahn also bullied management into becoming more pro-shareholder. If you bought it when it was that Icahn owned TWX, on May 13th of 2005, well, you're up nicely... Now, I would also point out that he sold that stock for a big profit. You had to do that too... he sold most of it.

Now, full disclosure... He has made a major mistake in WCI Communities (WCI). Could it get better? I don't think so. We told you to avoid all housing stocks for a couple of years now. We reiterate that position, including WCI.

.  .  .  .  .

Icahn's case for Motorola Inc. (MOT)?... Just forget about the debacle at this company cell phone business... Icahn noted that the massive free cash flow that MOT's other two divisions generate is enough to take the stock up from $9, where it is now, to the low teens... Again, forget handsets... He's saying they've got enough in the other businesses.

Like the rest of us, Icahn despises what MOT's done with cell phones, but he also pointed out that there are immense barriers to entry, preventing any new player from emerging in this business... among the highest barriers to entry that he's ever seen.

Icahn's wants MOT to do what I want it to do... break apart into three companies... something he and I both believe...

Icahn has already pressured MOT into putting one of his guys onto the board, nominating another with the election during the 2008 shareholder meeting. I think he's got the clout to pull this off. I don't want to miss the results. I think the downside is limited.

.  .  .  .  .

How about Yahoo! (YHOO)?...

Icahn's buying stock... tons of it... He had to file with the SEC to buy more than $2.5 billion worth... because he believes it's only a matter of time before he, and other like-minded investors, own enough to oust what he calls the worst least pro-shareholder management he's ever encountered, despite what he says is Yahoo's endless protestations that they're incredibly shareholder friendly... and that they're doing the best they can. Me thinks that Yahoo doth protest too much...

Icahn believes that mutual funds that don't wake up to this fact will have big redemptions. I don't think he's wrong... it's going to push them out of the game. If you own the stock in your mutual fund, Icahn is going to kind of like make it known that you didn't vote correctly. It's going to hurt your business. I like that...

Icahn thinks it is imperative for Microsoft (MSFT) to stop Google (GOOG), especially because Google could soon ship free software that you can download that Icahn thinks could be better than (Microsoft's operating system) Vista... not hard... and could send you right to GOOG's service. That would seem to set the stage either for the new YHOO to sell itself to MSFT, like it should have done before, or set up a search deal with them...

Icahn was so passionate about this... it happened to be the day that he wrote the letter about their ridiculous severance play... I doubt there was a person in the room that believes he won't go for it.

Beyond the Icahn factor, both Motorola (MOT) or Yahoo! (YHOO) are statistically cheap...

At these prices, the risk/reward for each of them is great. These stocks would tempt any performance manager right here... right now... because the opportunity to get into both of them hasn't looked this good for a while...

Here's the bottom line...

.  .  .  .  .

The Bottom Line!:      Don't buy Motorola (MOT) or Yahoo! (YHOO) because you believe in MOT and YHOO...  Buy them, because you believe in Icahn, whose only big misstep was WCI Communities (WCI).  But neither YHOO nor MOT fits that profile...  Stick with Icahn... 

.  .  .  .  .

 

   
 

Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)


MOT

8.92

8.99

Motorola Inc. (MOT)



YHOO

26.58

26.40

Yahoo! (YHOO)


 

 

 



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Second Segment
 
Final Segment 2 Title: 'Mad Mail'...

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s): See comments below...
 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Sudden:Death picks here...

.  .  .  .  .

 

   
 

Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)