Cramer on Motorola Versus Nokia (MOT, NOK)

On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer compared a great Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to a horrible Motorola (NYSE: MOT).  Last week Motorola said mobile handset sales were down 38% last week and lowered guidance ahead.  Cramer thinks that any ties to the company are wrong and that Motorola’s pain is Nokia’s gain.  Cramer doesn’t think Mr. Brown is doing any better since Zander left, and he thinks that Carl Icahn might be its only real help.  If you look at Nokia’s numbers, you’ll decide they are taking it all from Motorola.  To him it’s a broken company. 

• Our old $26.70 break-up value on Motorola is completely history compared to what this situation looked like back when it had value.  We have run some break-up values now that the company has allowed its state to go this way.  We aren’t even convinced that you could milk $20.00 from this cow on most days in the current conservative and "show-me" environment.

This sounds a lot like what our own Douglas McIntyre noted just last week.  He even stated, "It is all over now for Motorola (MOT) and Palm (PALM). They might have had a chance to pick up enough market shares to dig themselves out of the holes of late products, crummy products, and weak financial performance. RIM (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), Samsung, and Nokia (NOK) have flanked them then overrun them. A bad economy makes their positions untenable."

We’ve also noted that Motorola is just a turnaround that looks like it can’t turnaround.

Jon C. Ogg
January 28, 2008