The Internet fund's lessons
From TheStreet.com -- subscribers only
Yesterday SmartMoney broke the news that Kinetics Asset Management won't be selling the Internet Fund to Lepercq de Neuflize after all. Now the news is that manager Ryan Jacobs may be leaving. TheStreet.com quotes fund founder Peter Doyle as saying that Jacob has "got things that he wants to decide. He told me he wants to sit down and discuss things and what his future role will be." Jacobs keeps his office at Lepercq, although he is not an employee there. The intrigue is nothing new at the Internet fund, which was forced to temporarily close it doors earlier this year when it literally ran out of shares. The fund was the top performer in 1998 and ranks second so far this year. The lesson: there is more to running a successful fund company than just picking stocks that go up. Mom and pop fund companies (or mom and son funds with $600 million in assets in the case of Kinetics) are often ill-equipped to handle success. This may make the Internet fund a good, and relatively cheap, pickup for a complex that is strong on distribution (to exploit the track record) and deep in back office but lacking product of its own.

Janus' slide
From The New York Times -- must register
Ouch! The Grey Lady takes it to Janus by profiling the slide of Janus Twenty from the top of the charts on April 20 to its near bottom standing now. (The Times points out that Twenty now sits 15 slots from the bottom in a field of 4,008). For Janus, this reflects the live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword dilemma faced by concentrated funds. The article quotes fund manager Scott Schoelzel saying the right words (he's sticking to his knitting). Unfortunately for Janus, the paper uses it to highlight the lesson that many investors often mistime the market by buying a hot fund such as Twenty when its streaking and then dumping it when it cools. For Janus there is nothing to do but wait for the inevitable turn in cycles. Do we hear Tom Marsico snickering?

Is Amerindo Tech now a money market fund?
From The New York Post
The Times' wore kid gloves in its treatment of Janus Twenty compared to the story the NY Post hit Amerindo Technology with today. The fund was up 100 percent by March, and since then has featured flat performance. Too flat for the Post considering that techs have still been volatile. The paper speculates that the fund has cashed in its stock positions and gone to cash. As proof it cites SEC filings from March that it says show the fund cashed in 35% of its chips. Manager Alberto Vilar is quoted denying that the fund has done any such thing, but the paper doesn't give his denials much weight. The zinger: "Shareholders who bought this equity fund with the expectation that it would invest in equities will have to pay a 3 percent redemption fee to pull their money out. Money market funds, which hold 100 percent cash, charge no redemption fees." Oh yes, the speculation is based on the word of an unnamed shareholder.

Asia is back
From InvestmentNews
Asian funds are up more than 32 percent this year compared to the roughly 5 percent return for domestic funds. The article gets feedback from a number of planners on why they are or are not catching the wave from the Far East. Top of the heap is Matthews International Korea Fund -- up 211 percent this year.

More on Internet Fund, Gabelli
From The Wall Street Journal -- subscribers only
The usually leading edge fund coverage in the WSJ is a day late with coverage of both the Internet Fund and Gabelli's purchase of Mather. It also highlights manager changes at Stein Roe, PBHG, and Fidelity. 

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