FierceFinance – Not too long ago we were lamenting the trend by top investment banks to move into hedge funds and alternative investments in general. Buying hedge fund firms and launching them internally didn’t work out so well for Citigroup. It also wasn’t a home run for other firms, notably Bear Stearns. 

Has JPMorgan Chase found a way to buck the trend? It has announced it will buy the portion of Highbridge that it doesn’t already own, and has shut down its proprietary hedge fund and private equity businesses. As of now, it looks like the Highbridge gambit has paid off-and then some. It remains among the biggest of the hedge fund firms, and has tripled its assets under management since JPMorgan invested in December of 2004, reports TheStreet.com. My sense is that Highbridge is one of the mega fund firms that is really well positioned to steal market share.

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Tags: alternative investments, assets-under-management, bear-stearns, citigroup, gambit, hedge fund, hedge funds, highbridge, investment-banks, jpmorgan chase, market-share, nbsp, thestreet com

TheStreet.com – Two contemporaries rushed to the defense of hedge fund manager Ezra Merkin, who is reportedly being investigated by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo after his investors lost billions of dollars linked to disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff.

William Ackman, who manages Pershing Square Capital, and Michael Steinhardt of Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co. both called Merkin, a partner at hedge funds Cerberus Capital, Gabriel Capital and Ascott Partners, an "honest" man at a panel discussion of Madoff Thursday night at the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research.

"I’ve known him for 15 years," Ackman said. "I think he’s an honest person, an intelligent person, an interesting person, a smart investor. People don’t want to hear that because if you invested with Ascot you lost all your money."

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Tags: ascott, attorney-general-andrew-cuomo, berkowitz, bernard madoff, hedge-fund-manager, honest person, intelligent person, merkin, michael steinhardt, money manager, new-york-attorney-general, new-york-attorney-general-andrew-cuomo, pershing square, pershing-square-capital, smart investor, thestreet com, william ackman, yivo institute for jewish research, york-attorney-general-andrew-cuomo