Why would a company merge two funds that have an annualized average return of more than 21 percent over the last five years and are leaders in their respective asset categories, into funds with slightly lesser results and different investment objectives? In his column in Sunday's Boston Herald, Chuck Jaffe says that is exactly what Fidelity Investments is doing in its recently announced decisions to merge Fidelity Nordic (FNORX) into Fidelity Europe (FIEUX) and Fidelity Advisor Korea (FAKAX) into Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia (FEAAX).

Jaffe says this move is significant because it may signal that asset management companies opting for less specialization and more economies of scale. So there may no longer be a place for extreme niche offerings in the markets of the future.  

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