Industry

Waddell & Reed Financial of Overland Park, Kan., has announced it plans to acquire The Legend Group, a mutual fund distribution and retirement planning company based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for $61 million in cash and contingent cash payments of up to $14 million over three years.

For the second time in less than six months, ReliaStar Financial Corp. of Minneapolis has shown that it is intent on building up its mutual fund business.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of Princeton, N.J. is reshuffling its international funds lineup to merge out of existence three comparatively small funds.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh, Pa. has purchased InvestLink Technologies from United Asset Management Corp. of Boston. InvestLink of New York is a software developer and marketer of systems for the record-keeping, administration and servicing of defined contribution plans. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

It is a small part of a big deal but Charles Schwab Corp.'s announcement that it would acquire U.S. Trust Corp. of New York means Schwab will wind up doing something it has tried to avoid.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America of Newark, N.J. announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Hochman & Baker of Northbrook, Ill., a firm that trains accountants to offer investment products to its clients.

Deutsche Bank of Frankfurt, Germany announced last week it will combine the no-load funds from its subsidiaries, Morgan Grenfell of New York and Bankers Trust of New York, to create a new no-load fund family under the Deutsche name.

Prudential Insurance Company of Newark, N.J. has purchased a majority stake in the third-largest independent fund management company in Mexico. Prudential last week acquired a 51 percent interest in Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion of Mexico City. The new company will be named Prudential Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion. Both companies declined to disclose how much Prudential paid for Apolo Operadora.

Salomon Smith Barney of New York has filed a registration statement with the SEC to ask shareholders of its closed-end Greenwich Street Municipal Fund and shareholders of its open-end Smith Barney Managed Municipals Fund to merge the former fund into the latter. If approved, the proxy vote will take place Feb. 11.

Pimco Advisors, LP of Newport Beach, Calif. has agreed to sell one of its subsidiaries, Columbus Circle Trust Co. of Stamford, Conn., to Orbitex Financial Services Group. Terms of the deal, announced Nov. 2, were not disclosed.