The Big Screen: Smaller-Than-Life Tech Funds

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You might not have that mangy tech fund to kick around much longer.

Faced with steep losses, fund investors are lightening up on ravaged tech funds. Fund companies, which never like declining asset bases, are moving to either cash out the laggards or merge them into others. Some 20 tech funds have been merged away or cashed out this year.

This week the Big Screen zeroes in on some more funds that might not be long for this earth. The list includes funds run by sputtering Net specialists such as Ryan Jacob, as well as those run by value shops such as Neuberger Berman that thought they'd try their hand in Silicon Valley.

"Fund companies that rolled out a bunch of trendy Net funds are getting what they deserve," says Russ Kinnel, director of fund research at Chicago-based fund tracker Morningstar. "The fund world will be getting smaller," adds Burt Greenwald, a Philadelphia-based fund consultant.

In 1995 there were 21 tech funds; today, there are more than 150. Here's why: Fund companies hoping to get some of the whopping $75 billion the category pulled in during 1999 and 2000 slapped together loads of me-too funds. Alas, most of these funds hit the street just as tech stocks peaked. ...