The total number of fund mergers in 2004 was down from the past two years, but relatively high compared to the past ten years.

In the last year, 479 mutual fund share classes merged into other existing funds, compared to 781 in 2003 and 714 in 2002, according to Standard & Poors.

2004 data marks the first sharp reversal in the number of fund mergers, which have been largely increasing since 1994. In 19994, only 124 funds merged, growing to 300 in 1997, 401 in 1999 and 774 in 2001.

Farewell, Funds
Year	Number of Mergers
1994	124
1995	253
1996	267
1997	300
1998	449
1999	401
2000	548
2001	774
2002	714
2003	781
2004	479
Source: Standard & Poors data

In aggregate, the acquiring funds of 2004 performed slightly better than the merged funds of 2004. Acquiring funds returned 24.2 percent in 2003, compared to 22.6 for merged funds.

But breaking the data out by fund investment style reveals that merging funds' 2003 performance did not always beat acquired funds' performance.

Mid Cap Growth acquired funds returned an average of 34 percent in 2003, while acquiring funds returned an average of 32.5 percent. Acquiring Mid Cap Value funds returned an average of 21.9 percent in 2003 compared to 30.3 percent for acquired funds.

Transamerica's IDEX fund family completed 82 share class mergers in 2004, the most of any fund family.  

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