Straus Corporate Communications of New York, an investor relations firm, and Caithness, a corporate marketing organization based in Toronto, announced they have formed an alliance to provide corporate communications services to companies in both the U.S. and Canada. For U.S. companies, the alliance will provide a Canadian resource for communications materials production at savings of up to 40 percent from U.S. prices. In turn, the alliance will provide Canadian companies with services designed to build an investment presence in the U.S.

Deutsche Bank AG and Bankers Trust Corporation are in the advanced stages of negotiations concerning a potential cash merger at a proposed price of $93 per Bankers Trust share. The board of directors of Bankers Trust, and the steering committee of the Deutsche Bank Vorstand (or management board), have each indicated their support for the proposed transaction.

Scudder Funds announced a three-year agreement with IBM to provide IBM Internet Connection Services to its customers. IBM will provide Scudder's fund customers with a choice of three service plans, and offer free trial service for the first 30 days or 30 hours, whichever occurs first.

After selling itself to Bank of America in October of 1987, Robertson Stephens Investment Management, the investment management unit of Robertson Stephens & Company, will return to private ownership. A group of investors led by G. Randy Hecht, the current president and ceo and other senior managers agreed to take private the San Francisco-based investment manager with approximately $4 billion under management for an undisclosed sum.

Wilmington Trust of Delaware was chosen last month as investment manager of the Kiewit family of mutual funds. The name of the funds was changed to WT Investment Trust I. At the time of the change, the group of three funds had net assets of $531 million. Founded in 1884, Omaha-based Peter Kiewit Sons is one of the nation's largest construction firms.

DLJ Direct, the online brokerage subsidiary of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, has agreed to form a joint venture with Sumitomo Bank and Internet Initiative Japan to create DLJ direct Japan, DLJ Direct announced. DLJ direct Japan will be an online discount brokerage offering securities trading, investment trust and money market funds to Japanese investors. It is expected to begin operating in the second quarter of 1999. It will initially offer investors access to Japanese equities, investment trusts and money market funds. In the future, Japanese investors will be offered access to U.S. securities.

BankAmerica Corp. will take a 50 percent stake in Marsico Capital Management, the Denver mutual fund company which portfolio manager Thomas Marsico started little more than a year ago. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 1999. Marsico, a prominent portfolio manger who built his reputation with Janus funds, has gathered about $2.8 billion in assets since Marsico Capital was formed in September, 1997. BankAmerica exercised an option it held to make the purchase.

Investors Group, which built its market leading share of the mutual fund industry through a captive sales force, has gained a toehold into the insurance and independent brokerage channels.

DLJ Asset Management Group, a division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., announced that it has hired Funds Distributor (FDI) of Boston to direct and expand the distribution of the Winthrop Mutual Funds through financial intermediaries.

Investors in the SoGen Funds will not be the only ones hurt if performance troubles continue through the end of the year.

PMC International, the financially- strapped mutual fund company which was spurned in its proposed merger with Dundee Bancorp of Canada two months ago, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by the Ziegler Companies, a financial services holding company based in West Bend, Wisc. Ziegler will pay $3.1 million in cash for PMC.

Five months after buying Jack White & Co., Waterhouse Securities will combine Jack White's Advisor Services division with the Waterhouse Investment Adviser Services unit. The two will officially join on January 1, 1999 and be known as Waterhouse Institutional Services.

Scudder Kemper Investments has received permission from the Korea Development Bank to co-manage a corporate restructuring fund that will finance small- and medium-sized Korean businesses. Scudder Kemper Investments will invest approximately $250 million of the closed-end Corporate Restructuring Fund in equity and fixed-income securities of small and medium-sized Korean companies.

Fifth Third Bank has reached an agreement to provide custody services to Berkshire Capital Holdings of San Jose, Calif. Berkshire Capital manages one fund, the Berkshire Capital Growth & Value Fund, a start-up fund with less than $1 million in assets under management.

Roxbury Capital Management LLC of Santa Monica, Calif. has been named co-manager of the Managers Capital Appreciation Fund. It joins Essex Investment Management of Boston. Kevin P. Riley will manage the Roxbury portion of the fund.

The stable asset advisory and consulting unit of Laughlin Group of Companies of Beaverton, Ore. is merging with Dwight Asset Management of Burlington, Vt.

The merger of the Travelers Group and Citicorp into Citigroup is expected to create one of the most powerful financial services organization in the world. Within that, Citigroup is creating what it hopes will become one of the largest money managers in the world.

Negotiations for the sale of Pilgrim Baxter & Associates to Nationwide Financial Services have ended, according to United Asset Management Corp., Pilgrim Baxter's owner, and Nationwide. United Asset Management (UAM) and Nationwide could not agree on the terms of the sale. According to published reports, Nationwide would have paid roughly $600 million for Pilgrim Baxter, a mutual fund company based in Wayne, Pa. Officials either declined comment or declined to provide details on why the sale talks failed.

Putnam Investments has agreed to make an investment in Nissay Asset Management Corp. (NAMCO), a Japanese money manager, and help it develop a new product line.

Shareholder Communications Corp. is acquiring Kissel-Blake Inc., a proxy solicitation specialist and consultant. Kissel-Blake, which has been involved in merger, acquisitions, restructuring and proxy contests with KKR/RJR Nabisco Inc., Philip Morris/Kraft, Philip Morris/General Foods and Bell Atlantic/NYNEX, will operate as a subsidiary of Shareholder Communications.