Fund giants open front in portal war with Janus: Fidelity Putnam, Franklin team up to challenge Vision.

Investment News, December, 2001 by Gabriel, Frederick P.

Three of the mutual fund industry's biggest players -- and fierce rivals on many fronts -- have joined forces to form an Internet portal aimed primarily at independent broker-dealers. Fidelity Investments, Putnam Investments and Franklin Resources Inc. are mounting a major competitive challenge to an existing portal, known as Vision.

The parent of Janus Capital Corp., another major fund group, has a major stake in that site. The new portal, called Advisor Central, gives advisers one-stop access to 45 other fund companies. Together they represent nearly 40% of the roughly $1.5 trillion in assets that have been sold through brokers and other go-betweens. The website was launched with PFPC Worldwide Inc., a Wilmington, Del., transfer agency...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.