The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that the process that saw the country's oldest brokerage firm find a partner began about 15 months back when the MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier started an internal review. The Post's Barry Critchley writes that "3Macs" is home to 72 brokers overseeing about $6-billion of client assets. Chairman Tim Price says: "You don't make a decision like this lightly. But you have to look at the realities. It's very challenging these days to be able to generate the investments needed to be competitive. If you are small and nimble there are ways to continue to operate." The search ended last week when Raymond James agreed to buy the firm. It will now be identified as a division of Raymond James. The buyer was selected after a competitive process in which a number of potential acquirers pressed their case. When combined the new firm will oversee $33-billion of client assets. Given that one established brokerage network has been sold, the talk, naturally, turns to Richardson GMP, which has about $27-billion in assets under management, and Canaccord Genuity Group, which has units in Canada, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, with $34.4-billion under management.