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The deal is the third such announcement this year as the brokerage industry consolidates with the investment education industry. OptionsXpress (OXPS) announced the close of its deal with Optionetics on May 4th and TD Ameritrade (AMTD) closed its acquisition of thinkorswim Group in June.

Online brokers have actively pursued investment education providers because they offer a large, active account base and a new account acquisition system. Buyers of investment education products are valuable to brokers because they tend to trade more frequently and they trade a more diverse group of products such as options and foreign currencies.

However, so far the major education company acquisitions have been seminar-focused sales organizations, which brokers are seeing as a breakeven tool for acquiring new accounts and increasing customer loyalty. As the web moves toward free content, investor education providers offering free access become more attractive as a buy.

So far, full service brokerages like Charles Schwab (SCHW), Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER), and Fidelity have stayed out of the fray.

WizeTrade was one of the last remaining large, independent players in the paid investment education space. The group was founded in 1999 and has reportedly sold more than 130,000 software training packages. MB Trading Group was also founded in 1999. They are a direct access brokerage firm that caters to active options traders and is consistently ranked as one of the best online brokers by Barron's.

MB Trading launched MBT University in January with plans to offer 15 courses a week online. The MB Trading platform has been integrated with the WizeTrade system since 2006. "MB Trading has been an integrated broker partner with Wizetrade software products for the past three years, and this transaction is sure to further enhance the integrated technology for our customers," said Wizetrade President John Dankovchik in a statement.

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Second-quarter net income declined to $346.6 million from prior year's net income of $480.5 million, and earnings per share fell 21% to $0.77 from $0.97 last year.

The latest quarter results included litigation-related insurance proceeds of $24.9 million, and net realized capital gains of $13.2 million, while prior year's results included reduction of reserve for anticipated future losses on discontinued products of $28.5 million and net realized capital losses of $14.3 million.

Excluding one-time items, the company's second-quarter operating earnings fell 34% to $308.5 million from $466.3 million a year ago, and operating earnings per share dropped 28% to $0.68 from $0.94 in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.78 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Among peers, diversified health and well-being company UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) last week said its second-quarter profit more-than doubled to $859 million or $0.73 per share, reflecting strong revenue growth as well as the absence of hefty charges recorded a year earlier. The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company's adjusted earnings rose 9% to $0.73 per share, and revenues increased 7% to $21.66 billion.

Health insurer WellPoint Inc. (WLP) is scheduled to release its second-quarter results Wednesday, July 29. Wall Street analysts are looking for earnings of $1.42 per share on revenues of $15.43 billion, slightly below prior year's reported earnings and revenues of $1.44 per share and $15.48 billion, respectively.

Aetna attributed the decline in operating earnings to significantly higher Commercial medical costs, which reflect higher medical costs and additional unfavorable reserve development, primarily from the previous year. The operating earnings also reflected the impact of lower-than-projected 2009 Medicare revenue.

Mark Bertolini, president, commented, "We believe these increases in Commercial medical costs are largely the result of continued higher claim intensity, such as services rendered in a higher cost setting and more tests and procedures per visit, resulting in higher costs for emergency room, ambulatory, laboratory and preventive services. We are taking immediate actions to address these issues."

Total revenue in the quarter grew to $8.671 billion from $7.828 billion in the same period a year ago, and beat eleven Wall Street analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $8.56 billion. Excluding net realized capital gains, revenues were $8.658 billion, up 10% from last year's $7.850 billion.

In the preceding first quarter, Aetna had reported net profit of $437.8 million or $0.95 per share, operating earnings of $442.6 million or $0.96 per share, on revenues, excluding net realized capital losses, of $8.62 billion.

On a segmental basis, second-quarter revenues from Health Care, which provides insured and self-insured medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health products and services, rose 11% year-over-year to $8 billion, with a 12% increase in premium revenues to $7.03 billion primarily from membership growth and rate increases for renewing membership. Fees and other revenue increased 7%, primarily driven by membership growth. In the segment, operating earnings declined to $336 million, mainly due to an 18% increase in medical costs partially offset by an 11% increase in revenue.

Medical membership totaled 19.052 million members as of June 30, 2009, higher than last year's 17.499 million members. In the latest quarter, pharmacy membership was 11.234 million, and dental membership was 14.569 million.

Revenues from Group Insurance, which includes group life, disability and long-term care products, were $545.2 million, up from $495.8 million last year, while revenues were $535.7 million excluding net realized capital items, higher than last year's $503.8 million. Operating earnings increased to $42.5 million, primarily due to higher life underwriting margins partially offset by lower disability underwriting margins.

Ronald Williams, chairman and chief executive officer, stated, "Our second-quarter results do not meet our expectations or the standards we have established over several years of strong operational execution and financial performance. We continue to see upward pressure on medical costs beyond what we projected in early June, which we believe is driven in part by changing provider behavior in the face of a deep recession. We did not fully capture the impact of these forces in our 2009 pricing. This is disappointing, but it can be fixed."

For the first six months of fiscal 2009, Aetna's net income fell 14% to $784.4 million from $912.1 million last year, and earnings per share dropped 5% to $1.72 from $1.82 in the previous year. Operating earnings declined 20% to $751.1 million from $935.9 million a year ago, and operating earnings per share fell 11% to $1.65 from $1.86 in 2008. Total first-half revenue grew to $17.29 billion from $15.57 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Further, Aetna revised its fiscal 2009 operating earnings forecast, and currently projects earnings in the range of $2.75 to $2.90 per share. Earlier, the company expected full-year operating earnings per share in the range of $3.55 to $3.70. Analysts expect the company to earn $3.53 per share for the year, with estimates ranging between $3.30 and $3.65 per share.

The company noted that higher Commercial medical benefit ratio, which is expected to be in the range of 84% to 84.5%, will have a continued adverse effect on full-year 2009 operating earnings.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, that Aetna is considering the sale of its pharmacy-benefit management business, which manages prescription-drug benefits for about 11.2 million members, for which it could get at least $2 billion. WSJ noted that the business has been shopped around by bankers at Bank of America (BAC), Merill Lynch (MER) and Credit Suisse(CS), as well as industry players such as CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) and Medco Health Solutions Inc. (MHS).

AET closed Friday's regular trading session at $26.44, up $0.96, on a volume of 5 million shares. In the pre-market activity, shares are currently down $2.44 or 9.23% at $24.00. In the past 52 weeks, shares have been trading in a broad range of $14.21 - $44.64.

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