Brotherly Reunion
From Wall Street Journal
Firstar Corp. is purchasing U.S. Bancorp for roughly $21.1 billion in stock in a deal. The new bank will be called U.S. Bancorp have assets of $160 billion and be run out of Minneapolis by a pair of brothers. Jerry Grundhofer will take the titles of president and chief executive while John Grundhofer become chairman until his already-scheduled retirement Dec. 31, 2002.

London's Asian Star
From Wall Street Journal
If you are looking for a top Asian fund based in Europe, Jill Clark, should catch your attention. She manages four Asian funds for London-based Hansard Fund Managers Ltd. Clark's index-beating performance is the subject of a profile in today's WSJ Interactive.

Vanguard, MFS, Oak Associates, Putnam & AIM are Top Sellers
From Investor's Business Daily
Financial Research Corp has named the winning fund sellers from August. They are: Vanguard, MFS, Oak Associates, Putnam and AIM. Combined the five took in net flows of $6.8 billion, more than half the industry's net flows of $13.9 billion. Only Vanguard and MFS repeated from August of 1999 as Janus, Pimco, and Alliance all dropped from the list. FRC estimates that Fidelity had net outflows of $148 million vs. net inflow of $709 million in August 1999 and that Janus' August inflows were just of $220 million. Janus already confirmed that it suffered outflows from its retail equity funds in September.

Fidelity's Dividend
From Boston Globe
Want to know the mind of Fidelity's Ned Johnson? The Boston Globe takes a gander on the topic today. The paper reports speculates that Johnson, who has a long-running spat with the Globe, realized a special dividend when he sold Fidelity's New England newspaper properties to the Globe's rival, the Boston Herald, last week. Johnson's animosity towards the Globe is strong enough that Fidelity has long omitted the paper from its advertising budget. The paper also has a gem of a quote: "Would Johnson have ever sold his papers to the Globe? Some things are more important than money, one insider told me."

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