Janus Capital Group's fourth quarter net income fell 60 percent to $7.8 million. The Denver firm ended 2008 with AUM of $123.5 billion, down from $160.5 billion in end-September and $206.7 billion at the close of 2007.

Meanwhile, Janus plans to leave the institutional money market business by April 30. That business includes the Janus Institutional Cash Management Fund, Janus Institutional Money Market Fund and Janus Institutional Government Money Market Fund, which collectively held $5.8 billion at the end of 2008.

"Given the meaningful changes in the competitive landscape, we felt it was in the best interest of our clients for us to focus on institutional distribution and investment management resources on equity and fixed income," Janus spokesman James Aber told The MFWire.

"It's a scale business, he added."It was profitable for us, but it was subscale."

Aber said the decision to exit the business was based on a long-term strategy. "It's not based on the credit quality of the securities in any of these portfolios," he said.

Janus informed clients of its decision on Wednesday.

The firm will continue to offer retail money market funds. Assets in those four funds totaled $2.1 billion as of end-December.  

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