The acquisition of three asset management companies by European firms within the past two weeks may be a prelude to additional foreign acquisitions, mutual fund analysts said.

The Lord Abbett Equity Fund, a ten-year-old insured mutual fund with $55 million in assets, was merged out of existence on May 31, according to a proxy filing May 25. Shareholders voted to merge the Lord Abbett Equity Fund into the Lord Abbett Large Cap Growth Fund, a similar fund, on May 26.

Liberty Financial of Boston has agreed to purchase Wanger Asset Management of Chicago for $450 million, the companies announced last week.

The Managers Funds LLC of Norwalk, Conn., will pay up to $7 million to acquire the retail mutual fund business of Smith Breeden Associates of Chapel Hill, N.C., according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Managers Funds LLC of Norwalk, Conn., will acquire the retail business of Smith Breeden Associates of Chapel Hill, N.C., for an undisclosed amount, said Peter M. Lebovitz, president of Managers. Smith Breeden shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal in July.

Executives at the Pioneer Group of Boston are hoping that the firm's planned sale to one of Italy's largest banks will expand Pioneer's distribution abroad and its services in the U.S.

In Baltimore, a city where Legg Mason and T. Rowe Price Associates are the standards in money management, a lesser know fund family is trying to make some noise.

TORONTO - AMVESCAP's $1.8 billion deal to acquire Trimark Financial of Toronto, the biggest fund-company takeover in Canadian history, changes the industry's pecking order and accelerates the trend toward increasing foreign ownership.

The Pioneer Group of Boston issued a proxy statement last week saying the firm had received a second round of bids from prospective buyers and urging shareholders to support the existing board in a proxy vote May 16, to insure that a newly elected board does not jeopardize a sale.

ND Holdings is acquiring ARM Securities Corp., a mutual fund and annuities broker dealer filing for bankruptcy, for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The Pioneer Group of Boston has issued a letter to its corporate shareholders to update them on the firm's efforts to sell the company. The April 18 letter, signed by 73-year-old Pioneer president John F. Cogan, Jr., alerts shareholders that the Pioneer "board is very encouraged by the expressions of interest received to date," and attacks Lens Investment Management of Portland, Maine, a beneficial owner of 4.1 percent of Pioneer's stock.

T. Rowe Price Associates of Baltimore will pay $780 million in cash to buy out Robert Fleming Holdings, Ltd., of London in the firm's joint venture, Rowe Price-Fleming International of Baltimore.

Pioneer Group of Boston has purchased five mutual funds in the Czech Republic currently owned and operated by Credit Suisse Asset Management's investment management unit in the Czech Republic, Pioneer Group has announced. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.

Legg Mason of Baltimore, Md. has agreed to acquire Perigee, the ninth largest Canadian-based money management firm, based in Toronto. The acquisition will be structured as a stock swap. The firm's principals will remain. Perigee will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legg Mason.

Conseco Capital Management, the money management arm of Conseco, the insurance, mutual fund and financial services company of Carmel, Ind., will buy the adviser to the StockCar Stocks Index Fund, according to a proxy statement the fund filed with the SEC March 1. Conseco will pay up to $5 million over four years to buy the fund's adviser, StockCar Stocks Advisors, LLC of Mooresville, N.C., according to the proxy statement. The exact purchase price will be determined by future fund sales, according to the proxy statement.

Waddell & Reed Financial of Overland Park, Kan., has announced it plans to acquire The Legend Group, a mutual fund distribution and retirement planning company based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for $61 million in cash and contingent cash payments of up to $14 million over three years.

For the second time in less than six months, ReliaStar Financial Corp. of Minneapolis has shown that it is intent on building up its mutual fund business.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of Princeton, N.J. is reshuffling its international funds lineup to merge out of existence three comparatively small funds.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh, Pa. has purchased InvestLink Technologies from United Asset Management Corp. of Boston. InvestLink of New York is a software developer and marketer of systems for the record-keeping, administration and servicing of defined contribution plans. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

It is a small part of a big deal but Charles Schwab Corp.'s announcement that it would acquire U.S. Trust Corp. of New York means Schwab will wind up doing something it has tried to avoid.