MANAGEMENT BRIEFS

Citicorp is once again juggling bids on its I/B/E/S research service. Following talks with Datastream International and other would-be buyers last year (IMT, Sept. 17, 1993), Citi put its search for a new I/B/E/S parent on hold--until the turn of the year. At that time, the bank flung the doors back open and invited prospects in to chat again. "Interest has never been stronger," says one source close to the talks. "Expect a deal in the near term." However, among a long list of candidates, Datastream no longer looks a likely winner, sources say.

Keeping busy in the meantime, I/B/E/S last week launched three new versions of its Express daily estimates service, covering companies in Asia, Europe and Canada. Express was launched last fall covering U.S. companies only. The total number of customers for all the Express services has topped 150, according to an I/B/E/S marketing official. The vendor also plans to add a version of the product focusing on emerging markets, the official says.

Heralding the construction of its new operations center--and continuing its trend of swamping the dailies with help-wanted ads--Fidelity Investments is looking for staffers who wouldn't mind relocating to Northern Kentucky in the spring of 1995. The firm seeks a "2nd shift" research manager, an account maintenance manager and a trainer.

Merrin Financial has named David Nelson its CFO. He replaces Karen Hirschberg. Nelson was previously a vice president of Uniplex Inc.'s IMI Computing Inc. A source says Hirschberg left not because of any professional differences, but rather due to personal reasons; she quit Merrin in order to go into business with her husband.

Princeton Financial Systems has opened a New York City branch office, at 90 Park Ave. The new office will be used--according to a spokesperson--as Princeton's tri-state area "base of operations" for sales of the Pam investment management product. Running the show at the new New York digs will be regional sales manager Carl Restivo, who lands at Princeton after a five-year stint with Investment Support Systems Inc. (ISS)--where he acted as a systems sales manager. ISS is a software company which develops PC- and Unix-based trading room decision support, risk management and back-office systems.

Adobe Systems Inc. and Multex Systems announced on March 22 the release of the joint venture dubbed Multex Publisher--an on-line information service that uses Adobe Acrobat technology to distribute investment research documents (IMT, June 25, 1993). Meanwhile, Smith Barney Shearson has joined Montgomery Securities (IMT, Feb. 18), Kidder Peabody and PaineWebber (IMT, Dec. 10, 1993) in agreeing to evaluate using the product upon its release. Multex will charge $3,000 per server per month--which would support up to 50 workstations.

Speaking of Kidder, the brokerage's asset management unit, Kidder Peabody Asset Management Inc., is looking to hire a manager for performance measurement, as well as allocation analysts to work in a technical support group. Kidder Asset gained some fame when it picked Security APL's portfolio management system despite its parent's commitment to Advent's system (IMT, Aug. 20, 1993).

A geography lesson: In an advertisement exclaiming: "Portsmouth, [N.H.] represents seacoast living at its finest!", Liberty Mutual Information Systems is canvassing prospective employees for positions in, among other posts, fund accounting.

Alliance Capital Management, looking to support its information systems group, seeks systems professionals with financial industry experience as well as knowledge of Unix, Powerbuilder, Sybase and object-oriented systems development.