“We are going to see a large consolidation in the asset management industry,” Laurence<br />D. Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, said at a mutual fund conference on Friday.<br />The abrupt shake-up, which included the appointment of six new members to the AllianceBernstein board<br />and the removal of nine, comes as investors continue to abandon higher-priced, actively managed mutual funds in favor of cheaper exchange-traded funds that track a wide variety of stock and bond indexes.<br />“We want to adjust the company to the new structure of the industry.”<br />According to Morningstar, 36 percent of the mutual funds it tracks now follow passive strategies — up from 16 percent 10 years ago.<br />Active managers have been struggling for years to come up with a strategy for confronting the tremendous flow of money to passive investment strategies,<br />but the recent pickup in money moving to exchange-traded funds is forcing many to act sooner rather than later.<br />AllianceBernstein, an institutional fund manager rooted in a culture of active stock management, has seen investors<br />take their money elsewhere in recent years despite efforts by Mr. Kraus to reverse the company’s fortunes.<br />and Shakes Up Board -<br />By LANDON THOMAS Jr. MAY 1, 2017<br />In a move that highlights the increasing pressures faced by stock pickers on Wall Street, Peter S. Kraus, the chief<br />executive of AllianceBernstein Holding, was ousted by the money manager’s controlling shareholder on Monday.
