Tough Times Spur Many Firms to Reorganize

As Wall Street's woes continue, mutual fund executives have come to think of their industry as a drawing on an Etch-A-Sketch. When it gets messed up, they can shake it up and draw it over again.

Since late summer, scores of fund companies have combined and created new departments, cut staff and rejiggered their product lines (see related lead story, this page). An informal review of the industry, conducted by MFMN, shows that at least 20 firms have undertaken such measures.