Columbia Management Group was purchased by Ameriprise Financial from Bank of America. It is the seventh largest long-term asset manager in the U.S. with $355 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2010.[1] It administers the Columbia Funds family of mutual funds, some of which were previously known by the NationsFunds brand.
Columbia was forged from the acquisition of several fund management companies, which were acquired throughout the 20th century. Fleet Investment Advisors, Colonial Management Associates, Stein, Roe, & Farnham, Columbia Management Company, Columbia Wanger Asset Management, Crabbe Huson, Newport Pacific Management, Marsico Capital Management, and Banc of America Capital Management are the entities which compose the modern Columbia Management Group. Several fund brands, including Acorn funds, NationsFunds, Nations Marsico funds, and Galaxy funds, survive in Columbia's fund offerings.
The Columbia name was acquired by Fleet Investment Advisors, formerly a subsidiary of FleetBoston Financial, and was carried over when Fleet Investment Advisors merged with Banc of America Capital Management (itself the product of the BankAmerica-NationsBank merger of 1998) in 2004.
In 2007, Columbia sold Marsico Capital Management back to Tom Marsico and added the UST Advisers asset management from U.S. Trust Corporation when that company was acquired by Bank of America.[2] In 2009, Bank of America received preliminary interest from BlackRock (a 49% subsidiary), Franklin Resources & Federated in acquiring Columbia from Bank of America.[3] On September 30, 2009, Ameriprise Financial, Inc. agreed to acquire Columbia for U.S. $1 billion.[4]