Morgan Stanley reportedly has acquired hedge fund Oxhead Capital Management, its first such purchase as it forays into alternative investments under the stewardship of new alternative investment head Stuart Bohart. Owen Thomas, president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Bohart wrote in an internal memo, “We believe that adding Oxhead’s deep investment experience and compelling strategies to our platform will provide an additional benefit to the firm and our clients, bringing another diversified source of alpha to our portfolio.” The Oxhead purchase was Morgan Stanley’s third attempt to expand its alternative investments business through acquisition. Earlier this year, MS lost traditional fund manager BlackRock to Merrill Lynch, and talks with HF manager FrontPoint went nowhere. Oxhead’s $100 million AUM is considerably smaller than those two firms, but the Boston HF manager has a fine pedigree; it was founded nearly three years ago by Putnam Investments alumni Robert Swift, Nathan Eigerman and Daniel Phipps. The entire Oxhead management team will move to Morgan Stanley, which Bohart says in a Financial News interview, is planning for “more internal hires, team lift-outs and bolt-on acquisitions.”