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.

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.