A New York City-based mutual fund giant may be on the block soon, with a price tag of upwards of $5 billion.

MassMutual is considering selling OppenheimerFunds [profile], an asset management subsidiary with more than $249 billion in AUM as of the end of July, Bloomberg reports. The Springfield, Massachusetts-based insurer hired Lazard to help with the strategic review, Reuters reports. The FT also covered the deal talk.

That rumored $5-billion price tag translates into just over two percent of OpFunds' AUM.

The unnamed sources cited in the reports stressed that the review is in its early stages and that MassMutual has not yet decided whether or not to go through with a sale. All three reports put the potential sale in the context of the broader active asset management industry's woes. (OpFunds is largely an active asset manager, though in recent years it dove into the smart beta ETF space, too.)

OpFunds was founded in 1959, and MassMutual bought it 31 years later. The firm employs more than 2,000 people and is led by CEO Art Steinmetz.  

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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