Matthew Lynn thinks not. The Bloomberg News columnist writes that for the all the money Morgan Stanley spent on its trio of hedge fund acquisitions – an estimated $1 billion – it may be “too little, too late.” Lynn opines that MS, in fulfilling CEO’s John Mack’s promise to build up its hedge business, “is arriving late at the party,” and will pay the price for not having entered the industry sooner. It’s now spent an estimated $1 billion -- $280 million for its 20% stake in Avenue Capital Group, $400 million for FrontPoint Partners, and $300 million for its 19% share in Lansdowne Partners – and it may have overpaid, suggest Lynn, as it chose to enter the market when it’s strong. “Morgan Stanley is playing catch-up, and that is often an expensive game.” Lynn writes, “the big bucks are usually made by entrepreneurs and by big companies that get in on the ground floor. Anyone arriving late at the party gets fleeced.” The biggest problem Lynn has with the deals is that two out of three of them are minority stakes, which he says “usually are a recipe for disaster,” in that Morgan Stanley will have “a lot of responsibility and little power over companies it can’t control.” And if things sours, its MS’ reputation that will suffer. Lynn suggests a better bet would have been for Morgan Stanley to make a move on Man Group, which has a market value of nearly $18 billion, but “would instantly establish Morgan Stanley as one of the biggest players in the industry.” Now, it’s up to Mack to prove Lynn wrong.