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Real Money Radio: Times-A-Wastin'

TheStreet.com Staff

When investors look at a down market they are looking to buy stock, Jim Cramer said on his "RealMoney" radio show Wednesday.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is one investor in particular who's been buying a lot of New York Times (NYT Quote) stock.

Anyone who thinks they can pressure the company to do anything, including selling the Times is "out of their minds," Cramer said. The New York Times "is a classic journalistic institution," which has two classes of stock, he went on to say. While the A class is owned by you, the B class is owned by the company's management and family.

"The main reason the company has two classes of stock is to stop just the kind of maneuvering that is being done now to get the Times to do something to make itself more profitable," Cramer said. "So, why try to force a takeover when you can't?"

By having two classes of stock the Times is more like "a private institution masquerading as a public stock," he said. Therefore, although Cramer said he loves reading the Times, he believes Greenberg would make more money owning a university, such as Yale or Vassar.

Cramer urged his listeners to use the news of Greenberg buying stock to get out of New York Times.

Moving on to Tribune (TRB Quote), he said the decision for the newspaper's sale to be extended is "an acknowledgement that the cash flow from newspapers may be on the wane."

Anyone who wants Tribune only wants the company's TV stations and the Chicago Cubs, Cramer said, adding he believes the real problem is figuring out what to do with the newspapers and whether they can be offloaded on rich people.

"The private equity guys will ditch the papers fast, bring TV public quickly and sell the Cubs for much more than Tribune would know how to," he said. "In the end, Tribune's lack of savvy, including its stupid, highly leveraged buyback, coupled with the shrewdness of the private equity guys, will allow Tribune to be sold."

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