Mutual funds and stock brokerage
Fidelity is a privately held company founded by Edward C. Johnson 2nd in 1949 and still controlled by the Johnson Family. Fidelity Management & Research Company, the US investment management division of Fidelity Investments, acts as the investment adviser to Fidelity's family of mutual funds. FMR Company has three fund divisions: Equity (headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts), High-Income (Boston) and Fixed-Income (Merrimack, New Hampshire). Actual day-to-day management of these funds is subcontracted by that company to one or more of its subsidiaries. The company's subsidiaries serve as distributors and transfer agents to the entire Fidelity fund family.
FMR serves more than 21 million investors through individual and institutional accounts, with more than 300 different funds. Revenues in 2005 were $11.1 billion, up 10 percent compared to 2004. Assets under management rose nine percent to $1.2 trillion at the end of 2005. Currently, FESCo holds almost $3 trillion in managed assets.
The company's largest mutual fund is Contrafund, which has more than $69 billion in assets, making it the largest single-manager fund in the US. The current manager of Contrafund is Will Danoff. Magellan Fund is the second largest fund, with $45 billion in assets. Its current manager is Harry Lange, who previously managed the Fidelity Capital Appreciation Fund. The Magellan Fund was for many years the largest in the United States. It was run by Ned Johnson (May 2, 1963 to Dec. 31, 1971) and Peter Lynch (May 31, 1977 to May 31, 1990).
Fidelity Investments also operates a major online discount brokerage and has investor centers in about 100 cities throughout the US and Canada, as well in Europe and Asia.