Citigroup announced last Wednesday that it will acquire BISYS Group for $1.45 billion in cash and divest its retirement and insurance services units to J.C. Flowers, a private equity firm, for $650 million. Citigroup will keep BISYS' fund and alternative investment units so that it can expand its services to hedge funds, mutual funds and private equity firms.

Amid speculation that a sale of all or parts of financial servicing company BISYS Group of Roseland, N.J., are in the works, one hedge fund manager, Ahmet Okumus, president of Okumus Capital of New York, has been buying up shares of the firm and is looking for a seat on the company's board.

As it approaches its first birthday, the Gaming and Casino Fund, now managed by Ahrens Advisors of Dallas, is ready to welcome a brand new parent.

As the oldest bank in the United States, The Bank of New York has seen many changes over the past 220 years. But perhaps none as important as the regulatory changes being ushered into the financial services industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission within the last several months.

Proxy and shareholder communication firm Georgeson Shareholder Services has acquired shareholder mailing firm Alamo Direct Mail in a $15.5 million deal. Through the acquisition, Georgeson aims to boost its standing as a comprehensive service provider for the mutual fund industry by incorporating Alamo's Internet-based shareholder data-processing capabilities.

Global Investment Systems has broken with Extended Systems, its longstanding database provider, and is now using Oracle's database platform to power its latest shareholder accounting system, formally known as MFACT. Mary Pizzichino, U.S. director of sales and marketing at GIS, said Oracle's database offers the power and functionality required by larger institutional customers that is lacking in Extended Systems' database. "This new functionality allows us to attract and serve those users with the development of the Oracle functionality for MFACT." In addition, Oracle's database provides greater flexibility than Extended Systems for interfacing with a wide variety of server operating environments, like Microsoft's Windows applications, UNIX and Linux, Pizzichino said. GIS intends to continue Extended Technology in MFACT applications intended for smaller customers, according to a statement from the company.

A former leader in retirement plan recordkeeping and custodial services, personal trust services, and more recently custody services for registered investment advisers, Security Trust Co. fell prey to the SEC's microscope when it was charged in November with late-trading mutual fund abuses. The firm was the first to have criminal charges against then-CEO Grant Seeger and was the first to temporarily close its doors.

Oppenheimer Asset Management has added the Dividend Performers investment strategy to its separate account consulting program. The strategy is managed by Sovereign Asset Management, a subsidiary of John Hancock Advisers, recently bought by Manulife Financial. Dividend Performers invests in a group of approximately 350 companies known for growth and stability. All have increased dividends over the past five years and seek investments that point to future growth and earnings.

The bidding is over for the scandal-tarnished Strong Capital Management. Wells Fargo reached a definitive agreement last week to purchase Strong's $27 billion in mutual fund assets and $7 billion in institutional investment assets. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, Wells reportedly will pay less than $500 million in a first payment and then up to $200 million in subsequent installments, depending on which direction Strong's assets under management go.

Asset management industry merger and acquisition activity picked up significantly in 2003, but the size and scope of the deals plummeted, in part, due to concerns arising from the scandal engulfing the fund industry, according to a recent study released by Putnam Lovell NBF Securities of New York.

Mellon Financial has agreed to purchase Safeco Trust Co. from Safeco Corp., and the deal is expected to be completed by the middle of next month.

EnvestnetPMC has put out an undisclosed bid to acquire Net Asset Management, another Web-based, turnkey provider of separately managed accounts, mutual funds and alternative investments to broker/dealers and independent registered investment advisers. The deal would create the largest independent platform for fee-based advisers in a segment that began consolidating about 18 months ago but has much further to go, an analyst said.

J.P. Morgan Chase said on Wednesday that it is purchasing Chicago-based Banc One Corp., not only creating a banking giant, but also spawning the fourth-largest fund firm, according to research firm Lipper of New York

Cigna Corp.'s sale of its pension and 401(k) business to Prudential Financial for $2.1 billion in cash vaults Prudential into the top tier of the country's leading retirement services and products providers. The transaction, expected to close early next year, will plump Prudential Retirement's assets to nearly $120 billion and expand its participant base to 2 million.

Who says a lion and a bear can't cohabitate?

Asset management firm Dreyfus will market $4.7 billion in Bear Stearns assets, the companies announced last Tuesday.

By integrating Lockwood Financial Services and its Pershing unit into one separately managed account platform, Bank of New York claims that it will be able to increase distribution and launch the next generation of these products.

Wall Street marveled last week at how Bank of America's gargantuan purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp. creates the second-largest bank in the United States. But little has been mentioned about how it will result in the fourth-largest fund complex in the country.

Despite the scandalous black cloud that has settled over the fund industry, several investment management companies are still happily shopping for appealing mutual fund complexes, or even a single fund or two.

Not surprisingly in the asset management business these days, companies that once thought they could do it all are now returning to their core businesses and product lines.