PowerShares Takes AIM As ETFs Take Off; Merger Viewed As Catalyst; CEO Bond eyes influx of investors into so-called smart ETFs in new year.(EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS)(Q & A)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: MURRAY COLEMAN

PowerShares blitzed the exchange traded fund market last year.

It started by delivering two ETFs in 2003. It added two more the next year. Then last year it launched 32.

Most were based on what PowerShares' Chief Executive Bruce Bond calls intelligent indexes. These are a hybrid, somewhere between actively managed mutual funds and other ETFs that follow low-turnover, static benchmarks.

Now approaching $4 billion in assets, PowerShares has struck a deal to merge with London-based Amvescap. Bond and his crew will work through Amvescap's U.S. retail money manager AIM, which has $129...

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