More deal talk is swirling, now around a pair of publicly-traded industry giants.

Joseph Sullivan Legg Mason Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

LPL, the largest independent broker-dealer around, is "exploring strategic alternatives," Greg Roumeliotis of Reuters reports. Separately, asset-management-watching Gabelli analyst Mac Sykes reacted favorably to a report that multi-boutique asset manager Legg Mason [profile] could be a strategic target for investment by a Japanese firm. (Buyout and spinoff rumors swirled around Legg three and a half years ago, too.)

Meanwhile, in the latest on previously rumored deals, at least one outside PM, David Robinson, is smiling at the idea that Amundi might be the winner in UniCredit's Pioneer [profile] auction. As for Deutsche Bank [profile], there's no new word on the beleaguered bank possibly IPOing its asset management arm, but the whole company, Bloomberg reports, is under a "hiring freeze". And on the Janus-Henderson deal, the only one of these five deals that's actually official, Henderson CEO Andrew Formica sees the U.S. as "the largest market for absolute growth" for the merging asset managers.

As for LPL, Bruce Kelly of InvestmentNews reports that, per unnamed sources, the B-D's board hired Goldman Sachs after "receiving an unsolicited offer from a potential buyer." Barron's, RIABiz, and the Wall Street Journal have all weighed in on LPL's "strategic alternatives" options. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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