Jim Cramer: Learn the Lesson of Alcatel-Lucent

But the patents are for equipment that's been obviated years ago.

Now it is true that you could have been a buyer of Alcatel-Lucent all the way down. You may still be a buyer. There were so many reasons to do so, just as there are with Nokia or Research in Motion or Hewlett-Packard.

There's value all over the place.

But in the end once you have that vortex it is almost impossible to break out of it. Of the tech stocks that I follow that got into a tailspin, the only one that I have seen rescue itself in this era is Sprint (S), and that turned out to be a monumental effort that people are still betting against. Worse, unless you bought it at $2 or $3 or maybe $4 you lost money anyway!

One last thing. Throughout this period many thought Lucent and then Alcatel-Lucent had to make it because if the balance sheet. It always had a good balance sheet, always managed the cash well. So, there were no worries. That's what made me laugh about Alcatel-Lucent's frantic bid to get a lifeline from Goldman Sachs. In the end, the cash always goes, too.

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