Laura Pavlenko Lutton, an analyst at Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., described DWS as a "scotch-taped together fund company" assembled through mergers.

"They've also had their challenges on the performance side," she said in a telephone interview.

DWS has suffered redemptions every calendar year since 1998, Morningstar data show. Investors pulled $2 billion from the firm's mutual funds in the 12 months ended Jan. 31. With $47 billion in mutual funds, DWS ranks 35th in size among U.S. mutual fund companies, Morningstar estimated.

Investors withdrew $135 billion from domestic stock mutual funds in 2011, the fifth straight year of withdrawals, according to the Washington-based Investment Company Institute.

Deutsche Bank plans to hold onto its DWS mutual fund units in Europe and Asia.

Last year was the worst in the last five for mergers and acquisitions in the global asset management business, according to a February report by PwC, a New York-based global accounting and consulting firm. Activity may pick up this year as European banks, under pressure to improve capital ratios, sell their asset management businesses, PwC said.

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