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Next year ING, which manages $310 billion around the world, plans to distribute the Galaxy Funds in Europe, a new market for the funds, Mr. Joseph said. He did not specify when next year the sales effort would begin.

Fleet's agreement with United Overseas Bank involves fund management as well as sales.Fleet and United plan to launch an equity fund tracking stocks in Latin America, Mexico, and North America early next year, Mr. Ash said in an interview before his presentation. The fund would be managed and sold by United in Asia, where it has 1,300 branches. Fleet would act as a subadviser, leveraging both the Latin American expertise acquired discount tiffany money clip its recent merger with BankBoston and its relationship with the British firm Oechsle International Advisors, which it partly owns.In the United States, meanwhile, Fleet and United plan to launch a pan-Asian fund managed by Fleet and subadvised by United, which manages and advises $5 billion of U.S. fund assets. This portfolio is scheduled for a launching early next year.

For the most part, analysts said, Fleet's strategy makes sense."The mutual fund industry here is reaching a maturation stage," said James E. Folwell, a consultant at Cerulli Associates of Boston. And Fleet's bid to team up with banks should let it leverage the historical role discount tiffany necklace banks play in the investment market, he added.

But an alliance of this nature needs commitment from both sides, said Burton J. Greenwald, a Philadelphia-based mutual fund analyst."Inevitably in these alliances it's very difficult to get the salespeople on both sides fired up," Mr. Greenwald said. Still, if Fleet does a good job for ING here, they're likely to get good support from the bank in Europe, he said.

Even as it teams up with foreign banks, Fleet is said to be eyeing an expansion of a sales agreement with Mellon Bank Corp.'s Dreyfus subsidiary.According to James A. Neiland, senior vice president and national sales manager at Dreyfus' discount tiffany pendant institutions group, the two banking companies are in discussions that could eventually result in Mellon's selling the Galaxy Funds. Fleet already sells the Dreyfus Funds, Mr. Neiland said.As it happens, Dreyfus already has an alliance with United Overseas Bank. But the Singapore bank, which entered the relationship a year ago, has yet to jointly develop any investment product with Dreyfus, said David T. Goss, a managing director at United.MARCHING ON IN ITS BID to become a top provider of computer and networking components, IBM Corp. signed a cross-licensing pact with 3Com Corp. giving each wide access to the other's technology.Under terms of the deal, IBM, Armonk, N.Y., and 3Com, Santa Clara, Calif., will share patents on IBM technology including server access, load balancing, Web caching, ATM/Ethernet/Token Ring, network interface cards and network management.

IBM will have access to 3Com technology that includes hardware and software on cheap tiffany devices, network interface cards, modem technology, as well as routers, switches, voice-over-IP and LAN telephony.The pact between the two companies is the latest major deal for the IBM Technology Group. Earlier this year, it signed multibillion-dollar deals with Dell Computer Corp., Round Rock, Texas; The Acer Group, Taipei, Taiwan; and EMC Corp., Hopkington, Mass., in which IBM will supply computer and networking technology and components.The division is also in talks with Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, about a major outsourcing deal-including the licensing of IBM's copper processor technology, said executives at both companies.IBM's agreement with 3Com is not the first between the two companies, as discount tiffany ring have had longstanding licensing agreements. Bruce Claflin, 3Com's president, is also a former top executive at the IBM PC Co."What's occurring [is] each company is getting access to the patents of the other," said Tony Baker, director of intellectual property and licensing for the IBM Technology Group. Baker reports to Jim Vanderslice, IBM's senior vice president for the Technology Group, and is a force behind the partnering moves."We're excited about it," Baker said. "It just promotes the relationship between the two companies." Unlike the other megadeals, the 3Com agreement is not being measured in dollars and cents."It gives me access to patents of 3Com's that I can incorporate into technology products and sell in the OEM space," Baker said. "It empowers them with the same ability. It gives freedom of action. I can now take some of their innovation in the areas of modems, and use it in the ideas I have," he said.