Cramer: Thiel’s Sale of Facebook Stock ‘Tawdry’

CNBC

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel’s sale of a majority of his Facebook stock was “completely outrageous,” “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer said Tuesday.

Cramer blasted Thiel, a member of Facebook’s board of directors, for unloading about 20 million shares on Thursday, with about 5 million shares remaining in his portfolio. (Read More: Don’t Read Too Much Into Peter Thiel’s Facebook Selling)

While acknowledging that Thiel had every legal right to sell Facebook stock, which has lost roughly half its value since its IPO, Cramer had harsh words for the move. (Read More: Say Goodnight Peter? Thiel Should Quit Facebook Board: Pro)

“The fact that something’s legal doesn’t mean it’s fine in my eyes,” he said. “In light of all the money Thiel has made over the years, it just seems tawdry to me that he’s cashing out here.”

Cramer added that he had hoped insiders would actually be buying stock “as a way to show faith in the underlying company.”

“To me, Thiel’s sale is basically saying, ‘Hey, all you chumps who bought Facebook, listen up. I am a responsible investor and a megatron gazillionaire, and I know better than to own this piece of trash.’ I hope you see that’s the case, too,” he said.

Cramer said that at the very least, Thiel should’ve canceled the prearranged sale, or Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should have asked the billionaire to postpone it.

“It just seems wrong to me from the point view of the billions of dollars lost by everyone who came in after Facebook came public,” he said.

“Look, we all know that we live in an anything-goes era for the rich, whether it be asking for tax breaks that are much lower than the not so rich get or rigging markets or blowing up balance sheets and levering to the point of irresponsibility. No one ever has to pay. Other than the Mad Money Wall of Shame, I don’t even really believe that there’s much outrage about these travesties, at least not in public,” Cramer said. “So in that sense, Peter Thiel, welcome to the club. It’s just a shame that no one ever seems to feel, well, ashamed.”

Cramer, who is not connected to Facebook in any way, said that he would feel shame were he a part of the social media giant.

“But maybe I’m just old-fashioned and it’s me, not them, that’s out of step with this outrageous era of avarice and greed,” he said.

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