It must be one of the oldest arguments in the history of mankind: who’s number one? Last year, we received regular updates on the status of the ongoing battle between General Motors and Toyota for the global sales crown (and more recently for the Cash For Clunkers crown). At present, this question is causing a great deal of tension in the mutual fund world, as the industry’s two largest players battle for the title of “world’s largest mutual fund company.”
And at the heart of the debate: exchange-traded funds. [click to continue…]
In April of this year, Barclays announced that it had agreed to sell its iShares line of ETFs to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion. So why all the speculation lately that BlackRock and other banks are in the running to acquire the fund family? As part of its deal with CVC, Barclays inserted a “go shop” clause, which allows it to seek out potential acquirers until June 18. With that deadline less than two weeks away, BlackRock and Bank of New York Mellon have emerged as frontrunners, but the fate of iShares is still murky. Here’s a look at several companies rumored to be interested in making an acquisition: [click to continue…]
By now, many investors have heard countless times the advantages of ETFs over mutual funds: lower costs, tax efficiency, improved transparency, etc., etc. While the cost issue is relatively straight forward, the tax advantages of ETFs are a bit more confusing. Even with a detailed explanation, this advantage remains a largely theoretical concept for most [...]
