The Financial Post reports in its Friday, June 2, edition that the Desmarais family's decision to sell Putnam Investments marks the end of a failed effort to turn the company around, one that cost its Canadian owners well over $1-billion (all figures U.S.). A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that Great-West Lifeco, controlled by the billionaire Montreal family, is selling Putnam after almost 16 years to Franklin Templeton. Franklin will pay an initial $925-million, mostly in shares. Great-West is also eligible to receive contingent payments of as much as $375-million, tied to revenue growth targets, and will retain a small part of the business. The transaction puts a maximum value on Putnam of about $1.8-billion, Great-west said in a statement. That is 40 per cent below the approximately $3-billion it paid for the Boston-based firm in 2007. The timing for that original deal could hardly have been worse for the Desmarais clan, who built a multibillion-dollar financial-services empire over generations through shrewd acquisitions that consolidated the Canadian life insurance and asset management sectors. Power Corp. of Canada also benefits from the deal to sell Putnam to Franklin Templeton.