'Columbia' Selected as the Consistent Brand Name for All Liberty and Columbia Mutual Funds and Related Businesses.Business Editors BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2003 Columbia Management Group Columbia Management Group is Bank of America Corporation's primary investment management division. It administers the Columbia Funds family of mutual funds, some of which were previously known by the NationsFunds brand. , Inc., the asset management arm of FleetBoston Financial FleetBoston Financial was a Boston, Massachusetts-based bank created in 1999 by the merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston. In 2004 it merged with Bank of America; all of its banks and branches were given the Bank of America logo. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : FBF FBF Forearm Blood Flow FBF Frankfurt Book Fair FBF Feedback Form FBF Frame by Frame (animation technique) FBF FleetBoston Financial Corporation (stock symbol) FBF Fundamental Baptist Fellowship ), announced today that as the final step in consolidating its mutual fund businesses, including those of Liberty Financial acquired in 2001, it will substitute "Columbia" for "Liberty" as the consistent brand name for all mutual funds and related businesses, effective October 13, 2003. "For some time we've been one company in practice, now we will be one company in name as well. This rebranding will simplify the Columbia brand to both advisors who sell Columbia funds as well as the shareholders who invest in them," said Jim Tambone, co-president, Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc. "To both of these audiences, this transition will help position Columbia Management as a fully integrated and cohesive cohesive, n the capability to cohere or stick together to form a mass. asset management company." The rebranding will have no material impact on the management or the investment objectives of the funds, with the same people and businesses managing and supporting the funds and shareholders under the new names. The transition to Columbia includes the following name changes: -- All Liberty funds will be renamed Columbia funds -- Liberty Funds Distributor, Inc. will be renamed Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc. -- Liberty Funds Services, Inc. will be renamed Columbia Funds Services, Inc. -- Liberty Wanger Asset Management, LP will be renamed Columbia Wanger Asset Management, LP -- The www.libertyfunds.com site will change to www.columbiafunds.com Beginning Oct. 13, 2003, the funds will be listed under their new names in newspapers and online, and shareholders will see the new fund and businesses unit names on their mutual fund statements, semiannual Semiannual An event that occurs twice in a calendar year. Notes: A bond with semiannual coupons would issue payment once every six months. See also: Annual, Bond, Coupon Bond and annual reports and other shareholder correspondence. In only a few instances, in order to eliminate any confusion after the Columbia rebranding and to more closely align align (  līn),v to move the teeth into their proper positions to conform to the line of occlusion. fund names with their investment strategy, some funds' names will undergo more substantial name changes. Fund Name Changes: Previous Fund Name New Fund Name ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Equity Value Columbia Disciplined Value ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Strategic Equity Columbia Dividend Income(a) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Acorn Twenty Columbia Acorn Select ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Acorn Foreign Forty Columbia Acorn International Select ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Equity Growth Columbia Large Cap Growth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty Select Value Columbia Mid Cap Value ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Columbia Special Columbia Mid Cap Growth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Columbia Small Cap Columbia Small Cap Growth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Columbia Strategic Value Columbia Strategic Investor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberty High Yield Securities Columbia High Yield Opportunity ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) Effective on or about October 27, 2003, pending shareholder approval. Columbia Management Groups investment advisory affiliates have more than $150 billion in investment assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. as of August 31, 2003, ranking it among the world's 40 largest asset management organizations. This includes approximately $60 billion in institutional assets under management (as of June 30, 2003). Columbia's investment portfolio is diversified diversified (di·verˑ·s by asset classes, with approximately 45 percent in equity, 40 percent in fixed income, and 15 percent in money market funds. FleetBoston Financial (NYSE & BSE See Bombay Stock Exchange. BSE See Boston Stock Exchange (BSE). : FBF), a diversified financial The diversified financial services segment includes a range of consumer and commercially-oriented companies offering a wide variety of products and services, including various lending products (such as home equity loans and credit cards), insurance, and securities and investment services company with assets of $197 billion, offers a comprehensive array of financial solutions to over 18 million individual, corporate, and institutional customers. Products and services are available through a variety of channels including 1,460 stores and more than 3,400 ATMs from Maine Maine, ship Maine, U.S. battleship destroyed (Feb. 15, 1898) in Havana harbor by an explosion that killed 260 men. The incident helped precipitate the Spanish-American War (Apr., 1898). Commanded by Capt. Charles Sigsbee, the ship had been sent (Jan. to Pennsylvania, HomeLink(SM) online banking, and telephone banking. Fleet is the leading small business and commercial banking provider in the Northeast and a premier provider of financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. to selected industries nationwide. Information about FleetBoston Financial is available online at www.fleet.com. Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc. is a member of Columbia Management Group. Columbia funds are offered by prospectus through Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc. For more complete information, including fees, risks and expenses, please obtain a current prospectus, which is available at www.columbiafunds.com. It is important for you to read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money. |
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