Merrill Lynch & Company Inc. has agreed to acquire Advest Group Inc., an investment firm, from AXA Financial for $400 million in cash.[@@]
MONY Group Inc., New York, paid $278 million to acquire Advest, Hartford, in 2001.
AXA Financial, New York, a unit of AXA S.A., Paris, ended up with Advest in 2004, after acquiring MONY for $1.5 billion.
AXA Financial will record a loss of $96 million after taxes in connection with the Merrill Lynch deal, and the Merrill Lynch deal will reduce AXA Financial’s goodwill by $190 million, AXA Financial says in a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The goodwill loss amounts to 31% of the total goodwill associated with the MONY deal, AXA Financial says.
Goodwill represents the difference between the price one company has paid for another company and the book value of the acquired company’s assets.