When Robert O'Connell was earning a master's in European economic history at University of Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, he read with great interest about Baring Brothers. Issuing the bonds that allowed U.S. president Thomas Jefferson to complete the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 was among the highlights of this storied British bank's more than three-century history.

So when the insurer that O'Connell runs, MassMutual Financial Group, bought Baring Asset Management's investment operation last month, it was a historical as well as a historic occasion. "It's a prestigious name and one that is steeped in history,"says O'Connell. "We absolutely insisted we keep the rights to the name." He is adamant, however, that hardheaded business logic, not a history buff's sentimentality, drove MassMutual to buy the London-based money manager. (BAM, which has E29 billion [$39 billion] in assets, is said to have fetched more than E100 million.)

"It's a great fit for us and is part of our developing international business in both insurance and money management," says O'Connell. "We want businesses that are successful in their own right. Barings will be run independently."

Of course, Barings doesn't cut quite the figure on the world stage that it did in Jefferson's day (when it was already almost 150 years old). In 1995, Nick Leeson, one of the firm's traders, lost £660 million ($1 billion) in a disastrous bet on the Nikkei index, wiping out Barings' capital and making it possible for Dutch banking giant ING to buy the firm lock, stocks and barrel for £1.

Baring Asset Management, however, is profitable -- it made E29 million in the first nine months of 2004 -- and O'Connell says its fortunes are on the rise: "There is great performance coming through in core areas such as EAFE equities. It's a great business and a great team." With a great history.