While the losses of 2008 are leading some funds to liquidate, others are taking the opportunity to reopen instead. In the Morningstar Fund Times, Katie Rushkewicz reports that, after dropping 30 percent each last year (still ahead of their peers), DWS Dreman Small Call Value and Aston/River Road Small Cap Value have both reopened.

On the flip side of the coin, the Fund Times adds that relative newcomers Aston/SGA International Small-Mid Cap and Aston/Clarivest Mid Cap Growth, both launched in 2007, will liquidate on January 31, thanks to dwindling asset bases. (The Small-Mid Cap fund holds about $550,00 and the Mid Cap fund holds about $290,000.)

The Fund Times also notes:

the launch of a new fund, Baron International Growth, the firm's first international offering;

the impact of the Indian Satyam Computer Services scandal on a number of mutual funds (like Fidelity Select Software & Computers, Dreyfus Select Mid Cap Growth, Dreyfus S&P Stars Opportunities, Atlantic Whitehall Mid-Cap Growth, Sextant International, Fidelity Overseas, MFS International New Discovery and Fidelity Growth & Income;

and a host of manager changes -- at Aston, Columbia, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley/Van Kampen and Waddell & Reed. 

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