"...Cramer the Comeback Kid of financial television..."
washingtonpost.com
CNBC Hires Cramer As Markets Analyst
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 29, 2001; Page E01
Jim Cramer, who gave up managing a $400 million hedge fund in part to become a television star, got his wish yesterday when CNBC hired him as a high-decibel markets commentator.
The move, to be announced today, makes Cramer the Comeback Kid of financial television, given the extraordinarily hard feelings between him and top CNBC executives who booted him off the air as a part-timer in 1999. By last year, Cramer was largely off television after he and Fox News Channel sued each other.
Cramer, the majority stockholder in TheStreet.com Web site, was so upset at being bounced from the CNBC morning show "Squawk Box" that he would shout at the TV set and pretend he was on. "I wore it on my sleeve," he said. "Wherever I went, people would say, 'I don't see you on that show anymore.'
"I am very lucky that the people at CNBC were forgiving of things I may have done that damaged a very valuable relationship, and I'm grateful that people were willing to move on."
For CNBC, whose ratings have stagnated during the yearlong market slump, an exclusive deal with the controversial Cramer could provide a boost.
"Cramer was an extremely successful hedge-fund manager who was extremely outspoken and out front about what he did," said Bruno Cohen, CNBC's senior vice president. "It makes him very interesting to listen to. . . . Now he's just another guy with an opinion about stocks" but also "a substantial private investor."
The fast-talking Cramer, 45, was dogged by conflict-of-interest allegations as both Wall Street trader and commentator. CNBC suspended him in 1998 amid accusations -- later disproved -- that he had tried to short the stock of Wavo Corp. before bad-mouthing the company, whose stock dropped precipitously that day. (Cramer claimed vindication yesterday because Wavo is now trading at 4 cents.)
The network's contract requires Cramer not to short any stocks, and his personal holdings will be disclosed on CNBC.com.
"I didn't like the suspicion that I said something because I wanted to move my portfolio," Cramer said of the previous controversies. His resignation from the hedge fund in January also freed him to take on a management role at TheStreet.com, which had been barred under an agreement with federal securities regulators.
Cramer's falling-out with CNBC began two years ago when he repeatedly tried to convince CNBC President Bill Bolster to invest in TheStreet.com before it went public. Bolster refused, saying the financial news service was competing with the network's own Web site and refusing to give Cramer a program. (TheStreet.com has fallen from an opening-day high of $71 to $2.50 and has cut 20 percent of its staff.)
On a day that Cramer was co-hosting "Squawk Box," Fox News took out a full-page ad in the New York Times touting his role in its new "TheStreet.com" TV show. This led to an obscenity-laced conversation with Cohen and Cramer's ouster from the network. Cramer said he had no control over TheStreet.com's decision to go with Fox, whose parent company had invested in the site.
"Jim and I have talked it through in terms of the nature of his communications with me, and we've put it behind us," Cohen said.
Cramer, who writes as many as a dozen times a day for TheStreet.com and weekly for New York magazine, will appear weekly on CNBC's "Business Center," biweekly on "Squawk Box" and regularly on daytime programming. He said CNBC is paying him nicely, though presumably not the $10 million a year he has earned as a trader.
CNBC's ratings are down about 1 percent from last year, and some viewers have clearly tired of watching red arrows and sinking stock prices. But volatility always draws an audience, and CNBC posted its second- and sixth-biggest ratings last week.
Cohen said CNBC "sort of grew up during the bull market" and has broadened its economic coverage since Wall Street's bears started growling.
"If you had told me a year ago the Nasdaq would be off 65 percent, I'd have said we'll only be off 25 percent and you'd have been extremely skeptical," Cohen said. "As it turns out, the Nasdaq is down 65 percent and we're not down at all." |
