Putnam has shown the manager of its OTC Emerging Growth Fund the door. Steve Kirson was let go by Putnam from his role as one of three managers for the fund last week, according to Morningstar. An analyst on the fund was also dismissed. Kirson had comanaged the fund since June 1996.



Company stock used as an employee benefit continues to get black eyes in the media. The Boston Globe, the hometown paper for Polaroid reports that Polaroid employees were forced out of Polaroid stock in their ESOP after they left the firm. The paper suggests that the move was made to prevent employees from fighting the firm's bankruptcy reorganization. Polaroid rebutted that claim, saying that State Street Bank and Trust, the plan trustee, sold the shares on the advice of a consultant. The intent was to diversify the plan. The ESOP had owned 15 percent of Polaroid. The paper adds that Senator Edward M. Kennedy plans a hearing on the matter in February. "We expect to be introducing legislation to prevent this situation, so you won't have another Polaroid or Enron," an unnamed Kennedy aide is quoted as saying.



What is standard practice when a 401(k) plan is converted from one administrator to another? ASPA, the trade group representing administrators is surveying its members to find out (see the survey). The survey is intended to gather information as Congress considers rules restricting blackouts. The practice, now commonly called lockdowns by the media, has become controversial after the conversion of Enron's 401(k) prevented some employees from transferring assets.



Fortune has released its list of the hundred best firms to work for. Once again, the fund industry is well represented. American Century (No. 23), MFS (70) and Vanguard Group (88) were the three pure fund firms on the list. Joining them were brokers Edward Jones (1), A.G. Edwards (67), Charles Schwab (46) and American Express (91). Managers of managers Frank Russell (11) and SEI Investments (44) join Goldman Sachs Group (19) as other investment industry firms on the list.



A large charge accounting for job cuts drove Merrill Lynch into the red for the fourth quarter of 2001. The reported net loss of $1.26 billion ($1.51 a share) was down from a net profit of $877 million (93 cents a share) a year earlier. It includes a charge of $1.2 billion to account for 9,000 announced job cuts. Merrill also reported that client assets fell 13 percent to $1.5 trillion from a year ago. Earnings at its investment-managers segment fell to $48 million, a 61 percent drop, on net revenue that was $489 million, down 22 percent.



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