Todays humor, Cramer vs Cramer and WavePhore
NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - CNBC, the business news
channel, Wednesday suspended money manager James
Cramer as a regular guest host on one of its shows after
questions arose about his comments on Internet stock
WavePhore Inc., a provider of news and Internet broadcast
services.
"We're reviewing comments he made on the air, the feedback
we've received, as well reviewing our processes," a
spokesman said. "We fully intend to have him as a guest
contributor, but we want to wait until we've completed
reviewing comments he made."
Cramer, a hedge fund manager with Cramer, Berkowitz & Co.
and co-chairman of an Internet business news site, appeared
as a guest host on CNBC's "Squawk Box" program on Dec.
2, the same day WavePhore Chairman David Deeds was a
guest.
Cramer said he had called one of his traders to see whether
or not he could short the stock. He was told it was not
available. Cramer used that as an illustration of WavePhore's
illiquidity, but did not actually seek such a trade, according to
CNBC.
After Cramer's comments, the stock dropped about 38
percent to $5.75. The company described the comments as
disparaging and said they were responsible for the stock's
drop.
In a column Wednesday on his Web site, TheStreet.com,
Cramer wrote: "Again, for the billionth time, I did not try to
short WavePhore when I was on CNBC. I tried to check to
see if it could be borrowed to find out whether it had doubled
because of a short squeeze. I did that to try to understand
why this stock doubled, no more. I thought that would be
valuable to the viewer. I had no intention of shorting and never
shorted Wavephore."
Shares have since recovered a bit. WavePhore closed down
5/16 to 8-1/16 on Nasdaq on Wednesday.
WavePhore asked the Securities and Exchange On Dec. 1, it
announced a set of new online shopping partners for its
WaveTop Internet service.
CNBC said it expects guest commentators to "act with
integrity and objectivity" and not create an appearance of
impropriety.
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