MutualFunds.com of Boston is selling its domain name. The sale is part of a reorganization of the Internet start-up, which was originally founded as a mutual fund site to provide a wide variety of services to the industry, according to Abe Gorelick, senior vice president of marketing at MutualFunds.com. The 20-person company will now focus on providing online education and training for the financial services industry.

Acorn Investment Trust, a series of five no-load funds were to become load funds Sept. 29, at the same time the sale of the funds' advisor, Wanger Asset Management of Chicago, to Liberty Financial of Boston was to close, said Marilyn Morrison, a spokesperson for Wanger Asset Management.

Two fund groups whose advisers are owned by Irish Allied Bank of Dublin, Ireland have merged. Four funds offered by Govett Funds of San Francisco have been merged into four funds offered by ARK Funds of Oaks, Pa., the companies announced last week.

J.P. Morgan Investment Management of New York is selling its 50 percent share of DKB Morgan, a mutual-fund joint venture with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank of Tokyo, according to Chris Cosentino, spokesperson for J.P. Morgan. The company declined to disclose the asking price for its share.

First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. has formed a partnership with Stephen Dalton, current manager of the Evergreen Select Secular Growth Fund, to form ForeFront Capital Advisors, a minority-owned institutional money management firm that will be based in Philadelphia.

Firstar Funds of Milwaukee has filed a proxy statement with the SEC to merge three fund families. The directors of Firstar Funds, Mercantile Mutual Funds, and the Firstar Stellar Funds approved a plan this summer to combine the three fund families to form Firstar Funds, according to the filing.

Putnam Investments of Boston has struck an alliance with a Toronto-based money manager to enable it to pick up the pace of its expansion in the Canadian market.

Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co.'s increased buyout price of Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn., from $12.50 to $15.75 a share, may not have been enough to stop a class-action lawsuit filed against both firms, according to E.F. Goulart, a spokesperson for Phoenix Investment Partners.

Asset management buyers beware. The high premiums that acquirers have been willing to pay for growth-style or publicly-traded firms may soon prove to be too high, as these two brands of asset management firms may soon be out of favor.

American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., could land a windfall of 401(k) business as a result of the merger between J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chase Manhattan Corporation, both of New York, said a spokesperson for American Century.

MAXFunds.com of Ann Arbor, Mich., an online mutual fund analysis firm, has acquired the mutual fund information site, Findafund.com of Los Angeles, for an undisclosed price, according to MAXFunds.com. The sites will be combined into one that will provide comprehensive fund coverage, said Rick Baggenstoss, director of marketing at MAXFunds.com.

Credit Suisse Group of Zurich, Switzerland has agreed to purchase Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette of New York for $11.5 billion, or $90 a share, the companies announced last week.

The Bank of New York has agreed to acquire Ivy Asset Management of Garden City, N.Y. for an undisclosed price, Bank of New York announced.

AIM Funds Management of Toronto became Canada's newest foreign-owned mutual fund giant on Aug. 1, with the completion of its takeover of Trimark Financial of Toronto. It hopes to make further market-share gains by offering one of the country's most diverse product lines, introducing new low-fee share classes and expanding its distribution channels.

In spite of the rush to merge or acquire another firm in the money management industry, two-thirds of acquired fund companies failed to exceed their pre-transaction asset growth rates following a sale, according to Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Templeton Management Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources of San Mateo, Calif., has agreed to acquire Bissett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. of Calgary for $95 million. Founded by David Bissett in 1982, Bissett provides investment advisory services throughout Canada to a broad base of clients, including pension plans and foundations and high-net-worth and other individual investors through Bissett's 12 mutual funds. The acquisition is expected to close in October.

Franklin Resources of San Mateo, Calif., adviser to the Franklin Templeton Funds and Mutual Series Funds, is planning to buy at least part of the asset management unit of Nedcor Investment Bank Holdings Limited, a South African banking group based in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to a source close to the negotiations. A Franklin Templeton spokesperson declined to comment.

ING Groep of Amsterdam has signed a definitive agreement to buy Aetna Financial and Aetna International of Hartford for $7.7 billion - $5 billion in cash plus the assumption of $2.7 billion of Aetna's total $5 billion of debt.

Slowing growth of the mutual fund industry, a large number of funds on the market, disappointing share prices of publicly-traded asset management firms and competition from other types of financial service companies have prompted a recent spate of mergers and acquisitions, according to analysts.

Info-One, a financial services consulting and technology company, of Campbell, Calif., has acquired Financial Planning Resources of Atlanta, Ga. for an undisclosed sum, Info-One has announced. Financial Planning Resources owns The VARDS Report and the VARDS Total Reference system.