Takeover Firm Taken Over

W. T. Grimm & Co., a firm that specializes in the purchase and sale of small to mid-sized companies and monitors the pace of corporate acquisitions, has become part of its own takeover statistics.

Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch & Co. said Tuesday that it had acquired Chicago-based Grimm, recognized as a prominent source of information about merger and acquisition activity. The price was not disclosed.

“The acquisition of W. T. Grimm further enhances our ability to provide fee-based services to small businesses and to the high net-worth individuals who own them,” John L. Steffens, president of Merrill Lynch Consumer Markets, a subsidiary of the parent company, said in a press statement.

The statement also announced the appointment of Jeffrey S. Feldman, a director of Merrill Lynch’s business financial services unit, as president of Grimm, which will remain headquartered in Chicago. James J. Kelly, Grimm’s principal shareholder, will become a senior vice president, the statement said.