Janus

IN THE Stilwell Financial family, there was never any question about which fund company was the big sister and which firm was the annoying little sister. But just as little sisters tend to exact revenge in real life, so are the Berger funds becoming a major embarrassment to Janus, by bringing into question the big sister's status as an elite growth manager. It may be resolved happily for all involved, but not without Janus getting a black eye. The trouble started in October, when Stilwell - the holding company for both Janus and Berger - announced a reorganization to become what amounts to the Janus Fund Co. Janus officers were to be in charge of all operations that are currently part of Stilwell; Berger was to be vaporized, its value funds becoming additions to the Janus lineup while its growth and international funds were merged out of existence.

A wide-reaching and drawn-out legal fight over alleged trading violations in the mutual fund industry could soon be over, with federal judges in Baltimore expected to decide this fall whether to approve settlements that could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Numerous class-action lawsuits were filed on behalf of millions of investors across the U.S. as early as 2003, accusing mutual fund companies of breaching securities laws. Investor complaints in separate cases against 17 mutual fund families were transferred in 2004 to U.S. District Court in Baltimore for coordinated proceedings.

Janus High, a well-known Fells Point resident and former drug addict who owned a popular vitamin and herbal store there, died Tuesday of an aneurysm at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 49.Ms. High, who owned and operated the Off Broadway Cafe during the 1970s and early 1980s, opened the Fells Point Vitamin and Herbal Co. on Aliceanna Street several years ago and worked there at the time of her death."She was one of the original hippies," said longtime friend and writer Megan Hamilton of Highlandtown.

I am delighted with Hewlett-Packard Co. What are the prospects for my shares with the company? - C.G., via the Internet Shareholders have been happy with the positive change in its fortunes under chief executive Mark V. Hurd. It is becoming the industry's lean, mean fighting machine. After displacing Dell Inc. as the world's No. 1 computer manufacturer last year, technology giant Hewlett-Packard narrowed the gap behind Dell in U.S. market leadership in the first quarter of this year, according to the Gartner Group.

The stock market sent a wake-up call recently to investors in the Janus Funds, but most investors probably hit the snooze button and ignored the whole thing. One day is almost never significant over the life cycle of an investment, but July 27 presented a good lesson in how you might not be diversified if you own several funds from one company. What's more, it hinted at how big a problem this shortcoming could become if the market hits the skids. Here's what happened: Nokia, the world's leading maker of mobile phones, said third-quarter earnings wouldn't be as good as its second quarter.

IN DECEMBER of 1998, Mike Lu warned his mother not to make the Janus Global Technology fund her primary investment. The fund was new and - even for Janus, with its reputation for goosing returns by picking hot tech stocks - tightly focused and undiversified, the wrong kind of option for a huge chunk of the family nest egg. Wowed by the bull market, Lu said, his mother didn't heed his warning, diving heavily into the fund, noting that she "expected annual...

OVER THE PAST three years, investors have fled the Janus funds as if they were running for their lives. Bloodied by the bear market, marked by scandal and beset by management changes, investors have pulled money from Janus in 35 of the past 36 months. But throughout the company's troubles, some 4 million investors have stayed put, keeping $135 billion in assets with the Denver-based fund firm. This column is for them, the ones now trying to decide what to do with the new Janus, the one with new leadership, and mostly the same fund managers trying to heal old wounds.

Some people can't stop themselves from looking for storm clouds when they are on the beach in the middle of a sunny day. So it is with many shareholders in the Janus funds, who have been thrilled and amazed by terrific returns but who fear the party could be over depending on which side wins a nasty battle for control of America's hottest fund company. If you are a Janus shareholder, the situation bears watching and not much else. This fight is out of the realm of shareholders, who will have no say whatsoever in the outcome, and does not affect day-to-day management of the funds - at least for now. Here's the situation: Janus is one of several financial services operations owned or controlled by Kansas City Southern, a railroad company.

THE BEAR market has left the entire fund industry with some explaining to do, but some firms have a lot more to answer for than others. Last week, this column started breaking down the question of which big fund company has the most to prove, with the finalists for the dubious distinction being Janus, Putnam and AIM. As detailed previously, Janus had the worst dollar-weighted performance, where all stock assets are lumped together and the loss was...

THE No. 1 question among fund investors these days seems to be "What the heck is happening at Janus?" So I came to Denver, to the company's headquarters, to find out. I found a fund company, pretty much like any other. Despite rumors to the contrary, Janus managers don't set their hair on fire in pursuit of aggressive growth stocks. Nor are they pulling their hair out because of interference from Stilwell Financial, their new corporate parent. Nor have they necessarily lost the stock-picking ability that led them to be the best fund company of the late 1990s.

Investment companies sometimes bury their mistakes, killing off their evil spawn, the funds that never produced good results, or which once attracted attention but have since fallen and can't get up. But when Janus unveiled plans last week to kill its Olympus fund by merging it into Janus Orion, industry watchers did a double take. This was not some mercy killing of a lackluster fund, it was the end to a name that has been in the top 10 percent of all large-cap growth funds over the last decade, and which has been in the top third of its peer group for the past five years.

There are no wallflowers among the most fashion-forward furnishings for outdoor rooms. In fact, the hottest look in al fresco seating is contemporary, and these pieces - often with sculptural profiles - are practically upstaging lush landscaping and fancy barbecues. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, consumers annually spend more than $40 billion upgrading outdoor living accessories and garden amenities. Following an indoors trend toward less fussy, more streamlined looks, modern style is blossoming outdoors.

If your favorite restaurant tomorrow starts offering a new dish, you might be tempted to try it. Whether you order the new menu item would depend on several factors, ranging from your taste for the specific dish, to its cost and more. But if that favorite restaurant is a steak house and the new item is a delicate fish, you might be worried that ordering the special would be a waste of money. The same phenomenon and thought processes exist in mutual funds, and it was proved last week when two big-name fund firms rolled out new offerings that represent a departure from their usual line-up.

There's nothing better than seconds at a holiday feast. That's why it's time for another heaping helping of holiday jeers, the second installment in my annual Lump of Coal Awards. It took more than dreadful performance to earn a spot in my 10th annual awards. Lumps of Coal recognize managers, executives, firms, watchdogs and others for action, attitude, performance or behavior that is offensive, disingenuous, duplicitous, reprehensible or just plain stupid. Last week, I noted six situations where the recipients deserved nothing more than coal in their Christmas stocking this year.

In the Region Corporate Office Properties buys 6 buildings in Va. Corporate Office Properties Trust of Columbia said yesterday that it has bought six buildings for $26.3 million at a business park next to the Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center in King George County, Va. The move further increases the real estate investment trust's concentration in offices used by government and defense contractors. The buildings, totaling about 205,000 square feet, are within the Dahlgren Technology Center and are fully leased.

OVER THE PAST three years, investors have fled the Janus funds as if they were running for their lives. Bloodied by the bear market, marked by scandal and beset by management changes, investors have pulled money from Janus in 35 of the past 36 months. But throughout the company's troubles, some 4 million investors have stayed put, keeping $135 billion in assets with the Denver-based fund firm. This column is for them, the ones now trying to decide what to do with the new Janus, the one with new leadership, and mostly the same fund managers trying to heal old wounds.

DENVER - Helen Young Hayes, who was promoted 14 months ago to help prop up Janus Capital Group Inc.'s slumping mutual funds, resigned as investors continued withdrawing money after pulling $14.2 billion more than they added last year, the company announced yesterday. After taking on new duties as managing director of investments, Hayes, 40, continued to oversee billions as co-portfolio manager of Janus Worldwide Fund and Janus Overseas Fund. Each of those funds fared worse than at least 83 percent of rival funds over three years.

FOR THE PAST three years, investors in the Janus funds have been waiting for the company to regain its footing. Now, thanks to yet another change in the top-manager ranks at the Denver-based firm, they may wonder whether they were wrong to stick around. Janus, which grew dramatically in the late 1990s when the market was hot, has been struggling since the market soured on growth and started backsliding. In that time, Janus' management structure changed, with top investor Jim Craig leaving in 2000 and company founder Tom Bailey hitting the exit last year.

We rent homes. We rent cars. We rent movies. Why not rent music? It might be a very good deal. We now have more options than ever for buying music - we can purchase CDs from Web sites and stores and download music from online services. All that is now fairly routine for many entertainment consumers: You go to a site such as Apple's iTunes store or the new Napster and pay around 99 cents for an individual song, which you can store and play on your computer, or burn to a CD and transfer to a portable music device a certain number of times.

Walt is a 59-year-old retiree from Newton, Mass., who moved some of his money into Janus Growth & Income a little more than a year ago. The fund got a five-star rating from Morningstar Inc., had an experienced manager in David Corkins, and had beaten its large-cap growth peers during both the bull and bear markets. It was a time when many investors were leaving Janus funds, tired of suffering the losses the firm endured when the stock market's 1990s party came to a crashing end. "I knew what was happening with some of the other Janus funds, but I looked and saw a high-quality fund," says Walt, who called my radio show recently.