The stock market is getting a lift today because of a flurry of M&A activity, Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall St. Confidential video Webcast.
This action is igniting paper stocks, online education stocks and banks -- all of which were "previously dead sectors," he told Aaron Task, the host of Wall St. Confidential. Among the stocks that have gotten caught up in the acquisition frenzy, Cramer said he likes Laureate Education (LAUR Quote - Cramer on LAUR - Stock Picks), calling it an undervalued stock that was not getting any credit for its massive Latin American division. However, Cramer does not believe every company should take part in a leveraged buyout transaction. Unlike the hedge funds, Cramer said he doesn't want to own equity or bonds of companies that are experiencing bad times. But if there is a company that can't do publicly what it can do privately, then he believes it should allow itself to be bought out by a private-equity firm. For example, "the Gap is a legitimate LBO," Cramer said. Gap(GPS Quote - Cramer on GPS - Stock Picks), after consistently trying to make Street estimates, has failed, he explained. What the retailer really needs to do is look at selling 500, or even 1,000 of its stores, which would be "catastrophic for the company's earnings," Cramer said. Meanwhile, as a private company, the Gap would have more flexibility and would be "much less beholden to Wall Street for coverage and for sponsorship," he went on to say.


