Softie and Intel Ain't What They Used to Be

Microsoft (MSFT - commentary - Cramer's Take) really doesn't deserve to be considered a great company anymore. It is chronically late with software no one really wants. It is starting its umpteenth initiative to take back the Web, but it can't. That game's pretty much over. It can't seem to get out of its own way in the media business or the cell-phone business. And whenever it succeeds, it gets sued.

I don't know what to say about this company, or about Intel (INTC - commentary - Cramer's Take), its twin from the old days. Both companies defy rational thought and have become highly emotional totems. They remind me of Merck (MRK - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Pfizer (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) not that long ago: companies that everyone clings to -- including yours truly -- but that no one really believes in anymore.

No one's willing to come out and say it, but both Intel and Microsoft are PC-centric in a world where the PC is too big to be convenient on the road but not fast enough or big enough to play video games on. Those are the two big drivers, and these companies simply aren't levered to either. Plus, they play no role in the great capex spending that is the telco-cable arms race.

What do you do with them? The temptation with both Intel and Microsoft is always the same: "You hold on to them, they will come back."

I have lost too much faith. While I hold on to them, it seems that every Tom, Dick and Harry sector's on fire. You need the space on your sheets to be involved in something that can make you money, if not now, then at least in the foreseeable future.

I see nothing in the foreseeable future for either company.

Random musings: It is ridiculous that Conexant (CNXT - commentary - Cramer's Take) is down big on that great quarter. ... Amazing that these mineral stocks just come right back, isn't it? Why did we sell them? Oh yeah, a 0.3% change in rates in China. Remember that?

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Microsoft.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" at 6 p.m. ET weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Traders' Library under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Traders' Library purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.