Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of WRAL Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer unloaded a broadside on Motricity (Nasdaq: MOTR), a company that he has been “mad” about as an investor.
Now he calls the investment a “disaster.”
During his cable show, the driving force of The Street.com as well as the TV show and the author of numerous books on investing confessed that backing Motricity was a mistake. In an understatement, CNBC described Cramer’s report as a “mea culpa.”
Motricity has many roots in the Triangle, having once operating its headquarters at posh digs in Durham’s American Tobacco district. But CEO Ryan Wuerch and most of the company bolted for Washington state to be closer to some key customers and eventually went public. It retains a small operation in the Bull City.
However, Wuerch sold off Motricity’s smartphone business group to his partner, Jud Bowman, who launched Pinpoint. It’s now called Appia and growing faster than kudzu.
In his blast against Motricity, Cramer cited smartphones as a reason why he’s turned on Wuerch and company.
Admitting that he sometimes is wrong about a stock, Cramer said his Motricity investment was a “loser” and the time had come to “fold.”
Why? Because, Cramer says, Motricity is focused on “feature phones” or “dumb phones” rather than fast-growing “smartphones” that pack the “apps” needed to link people to the mobile Internet.
Cramer criticizes Weurch directly, saying “I’m worried that the guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about as the pain keeps coming.” Cramer had Wuerch on his show back in March for what then was a very positive interview. (Read more here.)
Read the full transcript and watch the video here.
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