"TAP não sobrevive se se mantiver pública", garante Pinto Luz

[Ulisses Pereira]

Cramer continua muito pouco entusiasmado com a Microsoft. Aqui fica o artigo dele. Frontal e agressivo, como é habitual.


"Microsoft Needs New World to Conquer"

By James J. Cramer
RealMoney Columnist
4/12/2004 8:40 AM EDT


"Now, if only I had picked a fight with Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - commentary - research) -- can you imagine how much money I could have heisted that company for? Last week we saw Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq - commentary - research) get a big check from these guys. Now it's InterTrust, which is pulling down a cool $400 million. How much will Rob Glaser and RealNetworks (RNWK:Nasdaq - commentary - research) get? That's another failing business that has tried its best to shake down Microsoft for its woes over the years. You buy them off and next thing you know, all of those squawkers to the European Union and Justice Department finally are shut up and Microsoft can start dominating again!

The question is, though, dominate what? Search find and obtain?


Unless Microsoft bids for Google this week, I think it is game, set and match for search find and obtain, with the winners being Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - commentary - research) and Google. Dominate listings? Taken. Dominate online travel? Taken. Dominate online autos? Taken. Dominate online books? Taken. Dominate online trading? Taken. Dominate online auctions? Taken. Dominate online music? Taken. Dominate online want ads and classifieds? Taken. Or how about online movies? Taken. Online video-on-demand? Taken.

Dominate desktop software? Done already.

That's why I keep coming back to the reason Microsoft is stuck at $24 and sells at 18 times backed-out cash: because it deserves to. It doesn't dominate anything new. It doesn't have any new growth that's so exciting it makes you want to jump up and down. It's got a real feel like General Motors (GM:NYSE - commentary - research) without the dividend.

Of course, we know that's an untrue comparison. GM is stagnant and Microsoft has some growth. GM has pension woes and balance sheet woes, and Microsoft has neither of those.

But the other day, when Goldman Sachs' excellent Rick Sherlund talked about Microsoft as a value stock, I stopped and thought, "Whoa, Rick -- if people are buying Microsoft because of value, maybe they ought to take a look at GM, $26 billion in value vs. $275 billion in value." Hey, don't shoot me, but one seems "cheaper" than the other, especially when you throw in that big dividend!

look at Microsoft these days and think it looks like some pathetic company that's getting shaken down by all the two-bit mobsters out there, and the Justice Department is working against it, not with it! Yeah, the Sopranos and the government working together to fleece the pitiful, helpless but legal giant.

Kind of sad.


And one stock I certainly don't want to own. For now.

If I want value, I know where to find it, and it isn't Microsoft. "

(in www.realmoney.com)