PowerShares parent company Invesco is in talks to acquire some of Guggenheim Partners’ retail funds business, according to several news sources.
Neither company would comment on the matter, but The Wall Street Journal reported a $2 billion price tag for the business shortly after Reuters broke the story.
“Invesco PowerShares is a European-based firm and is trying to become bigger asset provider in the U.S. This acquisition would support that goal,” said Alex Bryan, director of passive strategies research for North America at Morningstar, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.
PowerShares is the fourth-biggest player in the U.S. ETF industry, with about $127 billion in assets as of July 30, according to Morningstar data.
BlackRock’s iShares have $1.21 trillion, followed by $758 billion for Vanguard ETFs and $551 billion of State Street’s SPDR products.