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Many companies appear to be ill-equipped to thrive in a post-Covid world, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday.
“I have not seen a lot of companies who are prepared for post-pandemic. I’ve seen a lot of companies that were kind of banking on a little more pandemic,” Cramer said.
The “Mad Money” host said, “We’re not in a world of the pandemic anymore,” as far as business planning goes, and only one company that reported earnings this week demonstrated an ability to think and flourish beyond Covid.
“I have to tell you, the only one last night that demonstrated a lack of ‘pandemic-cyclicality’ was Airbnb,” Cramer said. “At one point [CEO Brian Chesky] was telling me last night, ‘I don’t know, are we a pre-pandemic story? Are we a pandemic story? Are we a post-pandemic story?’ He said, simply, ‘Maybe we’re a story.’ And I loved it,” Cramer later added.
Airbnb reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fourth quarter after the closing bell Tuesday, and shares Wednesday were up more than 4%. The company has spent much of its time focusing on a sort of travel revolution, as remote work necessitated by Covid becomes a more permanent option for many people across the U.S.
On the hand, Cramer said he expected more from Roblox. Shares of the metaverse company were getting pummeled by more than 25%, the day after reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss and revenue that was also worse than estimates.
“I thought that they were not a pandemic play. I didn’t put [Roblox] with Peloton, I didn’t put them with DocuSign; obviously those are the kiss of death,” he said. “I wanted Roblox to be better, and it’s slowing.”
Cramer’s message to companies struggling to drive growth in the new phase of Covid is simple: “Go listen to Chesky [at Airbnb]. Chesky defined this period. He is saying, the whole period of pandemic — you had to be working on things for post-pandemic.”
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