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Here are the top reads on deals and financial services over the last 24 hours,

‘We were dying’: Inside the scramble to overhaul Investors Group: Since taking over the wealth management giant, Jeff Carney has slashed fees, fired more than 1,000 people and changed its name. Will his bold strategy pay off? ROB Magazine (Tim Kiladze, for subscribers)

Barrick independent director Nancy Lockhart resigned before Randgold takeover was announced: Barrick Gold Corp. independent director Nancy Lockhart resigned before the company announced its US$6-billion takeover of African miner Randgold Resources Ltd. Ms. Lockhart had been a board member since 2014 and was also chair of Barrick’s corporate responsibility committee. On Monday, when Barrick unveiled the Randgold acquisition, Ms. Lockhart wasn’t included in a regulatory document listing Barrick’s 13 remaining directors, all of whom voted in favour of the deal. Story (Niall McGee and Rachelle Younglai, for subscribers)

Despite changes, mutual-fund investors still aren’t clear on how much they pay for advice: The number of mutual-fund investors who believe they pay a direct fee to their investment adviser remains low despite regulatory changes intended to improve transparency in compensation. In an annual survey released on Thursday, 72 per cent of mutual-fund investors said they were confident that they understand the fees they pay for mutual funds, a statistic that has held relatively steady since 2011. Story (Clare O’Hara, for subscribers)

MORE DEALS NEWS

SEC lawsuit: The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday against Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, accusing him of making false public statements with the potential to hurt investors. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks to bar Musk from serving as an executive or director of publicly traded companies. Tesla, the electric-car maker of which Musk was a co-founder, is publicly traded. The suit relates to an Aug. 7 Twitter post by Musk, in which he said he had “funding secured” to convert Tesla into a private company. Story

Venture capital: Opendoor, a startup that flips homes, attracted attention in June, when it announced it had raised US$325-million from a long list of venture capitalists. The financing valued the four-year-old company at more than US$2-billion. Story

Spin off: Germany’s Thyssenkrupp will split into two companies, one focused on capital goods and the other on materials, giving in to years of investor pressure and undergoing its biggest overhaul since the merger of Thyssen and Krupp 20 years ago. The group said on Thursday it would spin off its elevators, car parts and plant engineering businesses to shareholders, with Thyssenkrupp Materials, the company that will hold the remaining assets, initially retaining a minority stake. Story

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