CVC Capital Partners of Britain is in exclusive talks with Barclays to purchase its iShares exchange-traded fund unit for more than $4 billion.

Bank of America is merging its premier banking into Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, and as a result, several hundred people will lose their jobs.

Hennessy Advisors has acquired the Tamarack Large Cap Growth Fund and the Tamarack Value Fund, which hold $158 million in assets between them. Voyageur Asset Management, a division of RBC Asset Management, was the investment advisor before.

Certainly, the pace of mergers and acquisitions has slowed in the face of the weak economy, but large financial advisory firms are finding great bargains on small firms, which have become more interested in selling their company, Dow Jones reports.

In what would be a tremendous upset in the mutual fund industry, Barclays is shopping its iShares exchange-traded fund unit.

Integrity Mutual Funds has sold its mutual fund division to the employee-owned Corridor Investors and Viking Fund Management.

Benefits consulting firms Mercer and Callan Associates are creating a mega investment consulting shop, as the two have announced plans to merge their operations.

As the global financial landscape continues to reshape, mergers and acquisitions this year will be led by those firms seeking capital or those that have capital in hand to put to work, according to Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

Mutual fund prospectus provider NewRiver is suing Morningstar for using Internet espionage to steal information from its patent-protected system.

Mutual fund prospectus provider NewRiver is suing Morningstar for using Internet espionage to steal information from its patent-protected system.

In response to a report in The Boston Globe that Fidelity Investments is exploring a sale, chairman Edward C. “Ned” Johnson issued a rare response denouncing the rumor.

The events that occurred in the financial services industry over the past year were once thought inconceivable. At this point, regulators are chomping at the bit to reverse how Wall Street does business, and investors are downright spooked. The editors of SourceMedia's business publications offer their views on how these dramatic shifts on Wall Street and in corporate America will impact businesses and investors this year.

Large asset management mergers and acquisitions deals will likely occur this year, according to a report from Jefferies Putnam Lovell, as firms take advantage of distressed sales and divestitures.

Global research firm Morningstar has acquired U.K.-based Tenfore Systems, a privately owned provider of market data feeds and technology, for $20.9 million.

A consortium comprised of New York investment firms J.C. Flowers & Co., Dune Capital Management and Paulson & Co. is set to acquire distressed IndyMac Bancorp, according to published reports.

Peter Cieszko, who was selected to become president and chief executive officer of Evergreen Investments next month, has suddenly left, “to pursue other opportunities,” the firm said.

GLG Partners, a hedge fund, is acquiring the U.K. fund management arm of Societe Generale. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, the firms revealed that the unit has $8.2 billion of assets under management.

Neuberger Berman managers have bid for and won the right to buy the asset management business in a court-supervised sale, a source confirmed with Investment Dealers’ Digest.

Morningstar has acquired the business operations of InvestData of South Africa, a fund data provider, for undisclosed terms.

More than 110,000 people working in finance in the U.S. have lost their jobs so far this year, but that could nearly double to more than 200,000 in the final weeks of the year, the Anniston Star reports.