Industry

Nvest of Boston has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Kobrick Funds, a family of three growth funds based in Boston, from Cendant Corp. of Parsippany, N.J. later this summer.

E*Trade Group of Palo Alto, Calif., the online discount brokerage, has announced plans to buy Telebanc Financial Corp. of Arlington, Va., the largest online bank in the U.S. However, it is still unclear how this might affect E*Trade's mutual fund business.

ND Holdings, the fund management and distribution company based in Minot, N.D., has agreed to purchase a 50 percent stake in Magic Internet Services, an Internet service provider also headquartered in Minot.

Invesco Funds Group of Denver, Colo., announced May 28 that its shareholders had approved merging eight funds and closing three in order to simplify its product line.

Nations Funds of Charlotte, N.C., has completed the integration of Pacific Horizon Funds into its fund family. Nations acquired six Pacific Horizon Funds on May 14 and May 21 and renamed them Nations Blue Chip Fund, Nations Asset Allocation Fund, Nations Capital Income Fund, Nations Intermediate Bond Fund, Nations California Tax-Exempt Reserves and Nations California Municipal Bond Fund.

Pilgrim America Capital Corp. of Phoenix, Ariz., has closed on its acquisition of the 11 retail Nicholas-Applegate Mutual Funds of San Diego, Calif. The funds were purchased for $24 million.

ND Holdings of Minot, N.D., acquired the Lancaster Nebraska Tax-Free Fund and merged it into the Nebraska Municipal Fund on May 24. The Lancaster Nebraska Tax-Free Fund had assets of $13 million, and these were merged with Nebraska Municipal Fund's $28 million of assets, bringing the fund's total assets to $41 million. ND Holdings bought the fund from Smith Hayes Financial Services Corp. of Lincoln, Neb.

Alleghany Asset Management of Chicago has purchased Blairlogie Capital Management from Pimco Advisors of Newport Beach, Calif. Blairlogie, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, manages $890 million in assets, primarily in non-U.S. equities. Stuart Bilton, president of Alleghany, said the purchase of Blairlogie gives his firm international investing expertise.

The Depository Trust Company and the National Securities Clearing Corporation plan to merge. DTC and NSCC made the decision after nine months of discussion between their boards and management teams.

American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., is making a minority investment in W.R. Hambrecht + Co., an entrepreneurial investment bank in San Francisco. American Century made the investment in part because of the bank's capabilities to offer initial public offerings online, according to Harold Bradley, senior vice president of American Century.