TheStreet.com
Encyclopedia
History
TheStreet.com, Inc., was co-founded in 1996 by Jim Cramer and Martin PeretzMartin Peretz
Martin H. "Marty" Peretz , is an American publisher. Formerly an assistant professor at Harvard University, he purchased The New Republic in 1974 and took editorial control soon afterwards. He retained majority ownership until 2002, when he sold a two-thirds stake in the magazine to two financiers...
. It is traded on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
Global Market. The company is headquartered at 14 Wall Street
14 Wall Street
14 Wall Street, originally named the Bankers Trust Company Building, is a skyscraper on Wall Street in New York City, United States. It occupies the block along Nassau Street from Wall Street to Pine Street and is across from the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Its stock was made public
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
in May 1999 under the direction of past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Kevin English and former Chief Financial Officer
Chief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
Paul Kothari.
Under the direction of Thomas J. Clarke, Jr., TheStreet.com's most recent former chairman and CEO, the company reported its first annual profit in 2005. Jim Cramer became chairman in October 2008. Daryl Otte, a long-time company director, became CEO in May 2009 after the abrupt resignation of the former CEO. Otte is the founding partner of Montefiore Partners, a venture capital investment fund management firm, and a former executive at media company Ziff-Davis
Beginning as a single web site, TheStreet.com has since expanded and now also publishes additional consumer Web sites such as MainStreet.com, Stockpickr, and Bankingmyway.com. In addition to news and financial analysis, TheStreet.com also provides subscription investor services such as RealMoney and Action Alerts Plus.
In 2007, TheStreet bought Stockpickr.com, Rate Watch and BankingMyWay. In 2008, TheStreet.com purchased a 13 percent stake in Geezeo.com, the Boston-based online management tool, with an option to purchase the company.
TheStreet.com's most popular features include: Top 10 Stocks; Jim Cramer's Portfolios of the Week; The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week; Wednesday's Analysts' Upgrades and Downgrades, and Readers' Picks: The Street.com's Top 10. Dave Kansas
Dave Kansas
David Kansas is a journalist living in London and working for The Wall Street Journal.Kansas is former president of a personal finance online venture FiLife.com between Dow Jones and IAC/InterActiveCorp...
helped build the news organization from its infancy in September 1996 and became editor-in-chief in April 1997. Kansas also opened a San Francisco bureau and also sat on the board of TheStreet.com. In July 2001, David J. Morrow
David J. Morrow
David Morrow became editor-in-chief of TheStreet.com in July 2001, two months before the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center. Under his tenure, TheStreet.com won numerous journalism awards, including the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award in 2005 and three Society of Business Editors and Writers...
, a former New York Times reporter, joined TheStreet.com as its editor-in-chief upon Kansas's departure. Glenn Hall, a former news manager at Freedom Communications (The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register is a daily newspaper published in Santa Ana, California. The Register is the flagship publication of Freedom Communications, Inc., which publishes 28 daily newspapers, 23 weekly newspapers, Coast magazine, and several related Internet sites.The Register is notable for its...
) and Bloomberg News, replaced Morrow in August 2009. Chairman Jim Cramer remains one of the company's commentators.
While the TheStreet.com's most noteworthy personality is Jim Cramer, other contributors include Alix Steel, Adam Feuerstein, and Doug Kass. Alumni include Aaron Task, Dave Kansas
Dave Kansas
David Kansas is a journalist living in London and working for The Wall Street Journal.Kansas is former president of a personal finance online venture FiLife.com between Dow Jones and IAC/InterActiveCorp...
, Herb Greenberg
Herb Greenberg
Herb Greenberg is an American journalist, was a columnist and blogger for MarketWatch.com and a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal....
, and Brett Arends
Brett Arends
Brett Arends is an American financial journalist. He writes a column for the Wall Street Journal's website, though not the print edition...
. Investors have expressed concern for the company's heavy reliance on Jim Cramer according to investing columnist Henry Blodget
Henry Blodget
Henry Blodget is an American former equity research analyst, currently banned from the securities industry, who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer during the dot-com bubble and the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch...
. Blodget argues TheStreet "has diversified in recent years, and there's plenty of talent aboard." Cramer promotes TheStreet.com on his TV show Mad Money
Mad Money
Mad Money is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in publicly traded stocks...
and is one of the main contributors to TheStreet.com's paid subscription and free content.
On June 12, 2008, the Arizona Reporter Newswire alleged that TheStreet.com may have conflicts of interest relating to their subsidiary Promotions.com.
The company launched free Blackberry, iPhone and Android mobile applications. The Blackberry version was mentioned as "Official Honoree" for the Mobile Applications category of the 2009 Webby
Webby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
awards, got an honorable mention in the 2009 "Best of the Web" awards by Min online and together with the iPhone version won the 2008 "Creative Use of Online" award by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers is an association of business journalists. Its headquarters is at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri....
(SABEW).
In September 2010 TheStreet launched a new mobile optimized website with content from their main flagship freesite, thestreet.com. Users are automatically served the new .mobi site when accessing thestreet.com from a mobile device.
MainStreet.com
Mainstreet.com is an online financial magazine & news site by TheStreet.com, directed toward mainstream America and presupposing a very limited financial knowledge (unlike TheStreet.com). In addition to news, features and articles, Mainstreet.com features consumer reports and investing advice. Users who have trouble engaging with TheStreet.com, because of the terminology and assumed knowledge, tend to find MainStreet.com much more accessible, since it is written for the average layperson who does not have an in-depth understanding of Wall Street..StockPickr
StockPicker is a financial services site. It was one of the first sites to incorporate both investment ideas as well as social networking. This community, known as the Stock Idea Network, combines insight from professional investors as well as community members. Users are able to share, debate, and otherwise discuss information and ideas related to finance on the site's message boards, which are frequented by financial professionals.StockPickr was named one of Time.com's 50 best web sites in 2007. There are an estimated 150,000-plus user-generated portfolios, as well as portfolios of professional finance professionals on the site.